Ant100 SCL final

culture

what we learn from each other vs what was programmed by our genes; being able to have culture is programmed by our genes and that programming enables culture-specific ways of living

language

distinctively human resource and central element of culture, used for communication and cooperation, adapting to natural and social environment, signification

what is the adaptive value of social transmission?

social transmission is much more flexible than genetic transmission; major changes can occur within a generation or two and can occur without a change of species

how is race not a scientific concept but we can usually tell someone's race by looking at them?

different humans look different and looks can correlate with some genetic traits but not consistently enough to scientifically justify the notion of human races

naturalization

people come to think of what was socially constructed as if it were given by nature

what is the downside of "political correctness"?

"political correctness" aims to protect others, but can be a hinderance to understanding if it prevents us from talking about what we see is happening, or if it results in fear rather than thought

how is white privilege systemic?

social networks tend to be separated by race and white social networks are much more closely connected to employment, education, and other opportunities for advancement

semiotics

the study of how signs represent our world

signification

making sense, making signs

linguistics

the study of language

signifier

the form of the sign (a word, a sound, a smell)

signified

what the sign refers to

symbol

have arbitrary relation to signified ("referent")

icon

representation; share some of their physical form with the referent

index

do not share any of their form with the referent; don't look or sound the same as the referent, yet they indicate what they refer to

denotation

like a definition ("this is Donald Trump")

connotation

open to many interpretations ("Donald Trump looks like a chipmunk")

linguistic sign

like a word, phrase, sentence

reality

what is verifiable, the world as it makes sense to us; is socially constructed but may not always be the same as what really exists

construct

formed by people in society; most of reality comes across to us through the filter of signs and language

Whorf hypothesis

each language influences the way its speakers think and different languages construct different realities

how do languages divide the colour spectrum in different ways?

Whorf hypothesis applies; the colour spectrum is continuous but language divides it into units based on different definitions of a certain colour

Lacan's stages of development

the Real (ego not yet formed); the Imaginary (ego forms: baby sees itself in a mirror and begins to understand who it is, but is still supported by an adult, beginning of development of a sense of self); the Symbolic (language appears, learned from parents ad society; child begins to understand reality in terms of the language it learns)

what was Clifford Geertz's idea?

religion is concerned with the "really real"

iconoclasts

someone who is against established ideas

idolatry

worshipping signs of God as if they were God

blasphemy

invoking the presence of God through signs in an unauthorized manner, deemed as an insult

of what kind of things do some religious people accuse followers of other religions?

charges of superstition, idolatry, and blasphemy

what are universal features of religion?

reaching beyond reality, beyond culture, extending social relations beyond society, rituals

describe the Balinese spirit possession ritual

Rangda (mostly evil) and Barong (mostly good) spirits enter people and they perform the Barong dance; rangda puts men in a trance and orders them to stab stab themselves and barong must prevent them from doing it; shows that not every religion teaches that good must win over evil

nation

a unit constructed out of continuity and diversity

depoliticization

idea that the concept of the nation "hides" politics

identity

a kind of community that people belong to, especially according to their own estimation

imagined community

a group who feel and act like a community but don't know each other face to face (ex. Canadians)

cultural relativism

there are important cultural differences, including differences in what is considered moral; this relativist will recognize this and won't impose judgments from one's own culture onto those from another

moral relativism

this relativist believes that there are no universal moral values; anything should be accepted if it is part of the culture

what type of child do Alto mothers let go?

mothers abandon weak, sickly babies to death, believing that this is what the babies want and what God wants for them

what is Noah Chomsky's idea and how does it relate to moral and cultural relativism?

there is an innate, universal "language acquisition" device, so any healthy child will learn language if exposed to it; are absolute moral values also innate as well as universal? we learn specific languages from others in our society but all humans learn a language

phonetics vs phonology

phonetics studies sound units (phones) and phonology studies how language organizes into larger units (phonemes)

phonemes

not sounds but classes of sounds; meaning changes when sounds belonging to different phonemes are replaced with each other

allophones

positional variants of phonemes that belong to the same phoneme

emic

as categorized by the people observed

etic

as observed by the anthropological field worker

habitus

physical and mental ways in which we learn to react to the environment and to solve problems

kinship

fundamental form of relatedness

consanguineal

by descent, by blood

affinal

by marriage

Franz Boas

father of American anthropology; thought we should all be emotionally attached to our family, and that expands to being emotionally attached to other things or people

corporate groups

have an organization; share identity, economic and other practical functions, may share residence, act as a unit towards others

what does it mean if descent is ascribed?

you don't acquire it at birth but the social group gives you that identity

patrilineage

everyone descended from the same male line; the mother is not part of the lineage, her children belong to her husband's lineage

matrilineage

descended from the female side only; father is not part of the lineage, his children belong to his wife's lineage, however typically the most powerful individual is the mother's brother

clan

joins 2 or more lineages descended from a single imagined ancestor

phratry

joins two or more clans

moeity

the society is divided into two imagined descent groups; typically exogamous

exogamous

members marry out

how is relatedness shown in Palau Langkawi?

the core substance of kinship is blood, and the major contribution to blood is food (food produces blood, blood produces relatedness, eating together produces related blood, therefore people who regularly eat together are relatives)

commensality

sharing a table

what is the difference between the classic and the revised model of Marxist base and superstructure?

in the classic model, the base determines the superstructure where the base included material features (means and relations of production) and the superstructure included immaterial features (politics or religion); in the revised model, the base and the superstructure are connected by mutual influence and one is not above the other

industrial society

factory manufacturing became one of the main means of generating wealth; small upper class becomes most powerful, largest working class develops; superstructure includes market ideology, individualism, love marriage

postindustrial society

service industries rise in importance compared to manufacturing, middle class becomes the largest; generation gap appears

how does the capitalist market weaken interpersonal relations?

in capitalism, capital becomes an impersonal force that orders society, most items acquiring a monetary equivalent and are exchanged; the market itself is also an impersonal force, directing the economy like an invisible hand (Adam Smith)

wampum

shells from the Atlantic coast, used by indigenous people in Northwest America for status and to record events as well as to display wealth

Kula ring

red shell-disc necklaces that are traded to the north, white shell armbands that are traded to the south

unequal development

in many emerging economy countries there has been a large increase in gross domestic product, but the wealth generated has not been shared equally among the citizens

hegemony

hierarchical organization of society, in which hierarchical organization winds the spontaneous consent of most people

governmentality

practices that instill hegemony in the population

panopticon

type of prison with a tower in the middle which cannot be seen by prisoners who are in the cells

what is the relationship between hegemony and violence?

the state applies violence to protect the social order, so hegemony is reinforced by threat of violence

what did McLuhan mean by "the medium is the message"?

a new medium will change the way we live and think, regardless of the content that the media spread; new media are new means of production, going well with the notion that new means of production are associated with new forms of superstructure