IB Anthropology HL Vocabulary (P1)

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Belief and Knowledge

A set of convictions, values and viewpoints regarded as "the truth" and shared by members of a social group. These are underpinned and supported by known cultural experience.

Change

The alteration of cultural or social elements in a society. ___ may be due to internal dynamics within a society, or the result of contact with another culture, or a consequence of globalization.

Culture

The organized systems of symbols, ideas, explanations, beliefs, and material production that humans create and manipulate in the course of their daily lives. ____ includes the customs by which humans organize their physical world and maintain their social structure. Recent approaches: _ is dynamic and fluid, a site of contested meanings

Identity

Refers to either the individual's private and personal view of self - this is sometimes called the "moi" - or the view of an individual in the eyes of the social group. __ also refers to group identity, which may take the form of religious identity, ethnic identity, or national identity for example.

Materiality

Objects, resources and belongings have culture meaning and are described as "the social life of things," and are embedded with all kinds of social relations and practices. Some anthropologists think that human experience can be understood through the study of material objects. For example, contemporary approaches focus on the materiality of the body.

Power

An essential part of social relations and can be considered as a person's or group's capacity to influence, manipulate or control others and resources. __ involves distinctions and inequalities between members of a social group. It also focuses on structural power and the capacity of _ to produce subjectivities.

Social relations

Any relationship between two or more individuals in a network of relationships. __ involve an element of individual agency as well as group expectations and form the basis of social organization and structure. They pervade every aspect of human life and are extensive, complex and diverse.

Society

This vocab refers to the way in which humans organize themselves in groups and networks. It is created and sustained by social relationships among people and groups. This term can also be used to refer to a human group that exhibits some internal coherence and distinguishes itself from other such groups.

Symbolism

The study of significance that people attach to objects, actions and processes creating networks of symbols through which they construct a culture's web of meaning.

Agency-centered perspective

The capacity of humans to determine and dictate their lives. Argues that people can utilize their personal choice to overcome their structures. People utilize their agency to further their interests.
Relates to power and identity as key concepts.

Structure-centered perspective

Social life is determined by structures, which are beyond human control. These structures include institutions, belief systems, taboos, and so on. Structure then, limits agency.
Relates to functionalism, marxism and feminism as theories.

Conflict-centered perspective

Society is in a state of disharmony because people have different interests. Interests vary in society and people utilize their agency to achieve such interests.
Relates to agency-centered perspective but contrasts cohesion theories. Also relates to Marxism and Feminism.

Cohesion-centered perspective

Society is a unified whole and each person works to fulfil their specific role in the society. These specific roles complement each other and allows for society to coexist and function.
Related to Durkheim's functionalism. Contrasts conflict-centered perspective.

Diachronic perspective

Studies of society in relation to its changes over time. Concentrates on internal and external factors, and how they enact change in a society over time.
Relates with change as key concept. Contrasts with synchronic perspectives and cohesion centered perspectives as both focus on society at a single point of time.

Synchronic perspective

Does not seek to label societies as unchanging; attempts to take a "picture" of society and explain it at the given time. Still, does not account much for change encountered in society, and it cannot show a society in flux or in process.
Contrasts with diachronic and particularist perspectives, as well as change as key concept.

Particularist perspective

Societies cannot be explained by grand narratives, but rather, must be considered within the context of a specific history and specific circumstances. Makes it very hard to compare societies because no two societies have the same history.

Universalist perspective

Seeks to uncover commonalities between all cultures in the world: all places AND all times. One may argue that the generalizations founded by universalist schools are petty and insignificant.

Materialist perspective

Human experience is best related through tangible objects: has the potential to be reductionist and short sighted.
Contrasts to idealist perspectives.

Idealist perspective

Activities, categories and concepts of the human mind are the factors that form our culture and daily experience.
Contrasts to materialist perspectives.

Agency

the capacity of human beings to act in meaningful ways that affect their own lives and those of others. May be constrained by class, gender religion and social and cultural factors. Implies that the individuals have the capacity to create, change and influence events.

Authority

power is exercised with the consent of others

Class

division of people in a society based on social and economic status

Classification

assigning common knowledge to describe a large number of people or things as belonging to a recognizable system

Colonialism

practice of acquiring full/partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically, socially and politically

Commodification

Transformation of goods and services, as well as concepts that normally may not be considered goods, into a commodity, something of value

Communication

Language influences social life, forms social identity and group membership, organizes large-scale cultural beliefs and ideologies, and develops a common cultural representation of natural and social worlds

Community

A group of people who share a common interest, or a common ecology and locality, or a common social system or structure.

Conflict

disagreements between individuals, groups, cultures, or societies may result from differences in interests, values, or actions. Conflict theory presents a lens, or framework, which can give anthropologists insight into social impact of disharmony.

Consumption

the meaningful use that people make of objects that are associated with them. The use can be mental or material; the objects can be things, ideas or relationships.

Cultural relativism

Not making value judgements about cultural differences; understanding a different culture in its context.

Development

The concept of development refers to more economically developed societies providing assistance and resources to less economically developed societies, either directly through bilateral aid, or indirectly via other agencies. It also refers to self-directed industrial, technological and economic improvement.

Enculturation

the gradual acquisition of the characteristics and norms of a culture or group. The transmission of culture from one generation to the next.

Ethics

the principles of conduct governing an individual or group; concerns for what is right or wrong, good or bad.

Ethnocentrism

The tendency to view the world only from the perspective of one's own culture; the inability to understand cultures different from one's own.

Ethnography

writing culture; articles and books written by anthropologists following fieldwork research; the process of participant observation or fieldwork

Exchange

the transfer of things between social actors, which can be human/animal, material or immaterial. This is central to all people's lives, but its consequences and elaborations are more marked in some cultures.

Exclusion

the failure of society to provide certain individuals and groups with those rights and benefits normally available to its members.

Globalization

The tendency towards increasing global interconnections in culture, economy, and social life. Transmission of ideas, meanings, and values around the world in such a way as to extend and intensify social relations.

Ideology

the system of social and moral ideas of a group of people; a commitment to central values.

Inclusion

a person or group is welcomed, represented and provided for by the community or wider society

Kinship

the web or pattern of social relationships, which connects people through descent or marriage, although other forms of social connection may be included

Marginality

human dimensions used as a basis for social exclusion (ex. class, ethnicity, gender)

Gender

the culturally constructed distinctions between males and females

Modernization

the adoption of characteristics of more developed societies by less developed societies, generally including the abandonment of some traditional practices

Neo-colonialism

relations between former colonial powers and former colonies , which perpetuate to some degree the domination and exploitation that existed under colonialism

Race

a socially constructed category of identification of people based on physical characteristics, ancestry, historical affiliation, or shared culture. In colonial times this term was used to support ethnocentric, prejudicial views.

Reciprocity

Mutual exchange or obligation between people: generalized (no expectation of return); balanced (exchange of equal value); negative (one party seeks to benefit at the expense of other)

Religion

system of symbols that acts to establish understandings of existence in such a way that it is realistic to its followers. It is generally supported and perpetuated by ritual.

Role

the dynamic aspect of status: a person's actual behavior within the context of that status.

Self

the individual's social self is the product of social interaction and not the biological preconditions of that interaction

Sexuality

a central feature of being human that is highly individualized. Includes sexual feelings, thoughts, attractions, preferences and sometimes behavior. Michel Foucault wrote about Western societies historically repressing this term up until the sexual revolution of the mid to late 20th century.

Social inequality

the existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society.

Socialization

the process through which a person learns to become an accepted member of society via agents such as family, peers and media.

Status

the position a person has within a social system. This may be ascribed (beyond an individual's control) or achieved (acquired on the basis of merit). They are usually multiple and come with sets of rights, obligations, behaviors and duties that individuals of certain positions are expected to perform.

Structure

an abstract concept derived from all social institutions and social relations existing in a society. Generally seen as the resilient regulating aspects of society that constrain the actions of its members.

Suffering

the human consequences of war, famine, depression, disease, torture and other problems that result from how political, economic and institutional power may impact people negatively.

Time

individuals, communities, and societies are situated in a particular period of time and also change over time. It can be examined as past, present, or future. Cultural experiences from the past impact the present and shape thinking about the future,

Norms

a set of rules of expected behavior; things that are seen as completely normal for people to do

Values

beliefs that most people share in a society

Social control

Any means used to maintain behavioral norms and regulate conflict

Stereotype

Generalized, oversimplified characteristics of a social group, allowing few individual differences

Ethnic/ethnicity

a social group is connected by a shared understanding of cultural identity

Diaspora

The dispersal of peoples from homelands to establish new, migrated communities in other places

Embodiment

The process by which people incorporate biologically the social and material world in which they live. A person knows, feels and thinks about the social world through the body

Essentialism

Reducing description of a social group or culture to a limited set of characteristics, ignoring individual differences and agency

Environment

Communities or societies may have a complex relationship with the physical setting in which they live

Family

A term covering a range of meaning in terms of relatedness and connection of people: can refer to domestic group, household or wider kinship network

Marginalization

Relegating specific groups of people to the edge of society economically, politically, culturally and socially; limiting their access to productive resources and avenues for the realization of their productive human potential

Morality

Adherence to the rules or norms of a social group; also relates to thinking and behavior that pursues or acts in the interest of general human excellence

Personhood

Culturally constructed concept of the individual human being, the self - can also mean the body (the body becomes the topic of political debate in gender related discourse)

Positionality

the effect an anthropologist’s own subjectivity might have on how he or she interprets observations and experience

Reflexivity

Anthropologists acknowledge that their own knowledge base, beliefs and perspectives may influence their research and writing

Reproduction

the transmission of existing cultural values and norms and other aspects of society from generation to generation

Ritual

A formalized event, the rules of which are determined by the traditions of a social group, characterized by symbolism and performance. Religion is a significant context for the practice of rituals, but the scope of ritual behavoir extends to other areas.

Social stratification

the systematic organization of persons and groups into hierarchical structures of inequality. Can be according to age, gender, class,work specialization or ethnicity.

Acculturation

Cultural change related to contact with another culture

Alterity

“Otherness.“ Used to describe and comment on the construction and experience of cultural difference

Capitalism

An economic and political system in which a society’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit rather than by the state

Causation

The capacity of one cultural feature to influence another

Cosmopolitanism

Communities include individuals who live together with cultural difference

Cultural capital

The knowledge and experience individuals acquired through socialization, which enables successful interaction in their social world

Empirical

Anthropological data is acquired through 1st hand participant observation rather than secondary research

Governmentality

Term coined by Michel Foucault. Refers to the way in which state exercises control over population

Habitus

Pierre Bourdieu - socialized norms guide people’s behavior and thinking. These norms become lasting tendencies to think, feel and act in certain ways in particular social situations

Healing practices

culturally specific ways of treating illnesses

Health

physical and mental condition of a body. anthropologists examine how human being’s efforts to secure health and treat illness are impacted by cultural processes

Hegemony

cultural and political dominance of one social group over others; cultural processes through which the ruling classes maintain their power

Hybridity

When multiple cultures mix, bringing traditions as they negotiate their shared and unshared identities

Insider/outsider

In field research, different viewpoints are apparent: from within the social group (the perspective of the subject) and from outside (perspective of the observer)

Knowledge system

Culture is socially learned and provides people with what they need to know to act appropriately.

Labor

The efforts of individuals as workers in a capitalist context is considered as a factor of production.

Their efforts, along with land and capital, is ascribed a value.

The process of division of labor into specified tasks may be driven by gender

Liminality

Participants in a rite of passage or ritual are temporarily literally and symbolically marginalized from their community. (example: transition from teen to adulthood)

Status become ambiguous until they rejoin their community and adopt their new status.

Localization

A social group’s specific adaptation of the influences of globalization

Movement

a loosely organized but sustained campaign in support of a social goal, typically either the implementation of the prevention of a change in society's structure or values

Nation State

A politically legitimate, bounded geographical area

A state = political and geopolitical entity

A nation a cultural one

“nation state“ implies that the two coincide, but colonization created many instances where this notion may be disputed

Ontology

the study of the nature of ‘being,‘ existence, reality. Anthropologists may study other kinds of realities outside those that have been socially constructed

Representation

Anthropologists need to consider the inherently problematic nature of description of living people, specifically in ethnography and more generally in anthropological work as a whole

Revitalization

Rejection of newly introduced cultural elements and reclamation of historical roots, traditional identity and spiritual imagination

Space

Has a socially constructed meaning. Physical spaces have dialectical relationship with societies that inhabit them.

State

An organized political community living under a single system of government