People and Cultures of the World

Chapter 1

Anthropology

The study of humanity including prehistoric origins and contemporary human diversity.

Biological Anthropology

The study of humans as biological organisms including evolution and variation.

Archaeology

The study of past human cultures through their material remains.

Linguistic Anthropology

The study of human communication, including its. origins, history, and contemporary variation and change.

Cultural Anthropology

The study of living peoples and their cultures, including variation and change.

Culture

Refers to peoples learned and shared behaviors.

Applied Anthropology

The use of anthropological knowledge to prevent or solve problems or to shape and achieve policy goals.

Functionalism

The theory that a culture is similar to a biological organism, in which parts work to support the operation and maintenance of the whole.

Cultural Relativism

The perspective that each culture must be understood in terms of the values and ideas of that culture and not judged by the standards of another culture.

Cultural Materialism

An approach to studying culture by emphasizing the material aspects of life, including people’s environment, how people make a living, and differences in wealth and power.

Interpretive Anthropology

Or a symbolic approach, seeks to understand culture by studying what people think about, their ideas, and the meanings that are important to them.

Structurism

A theoretical position concerning human behavior and ideas that says large forces such as the economy, social and political organizations, and the media shape what people do and think.

Agency

The ability of humans to make choices and exercise free will even within dominating structures.

Biological Determinism

A theory that explains human behavior and ideas as shaped mainly by biological features such as genes and hormones.

Cultural Constructionism

A theory that explains human behavior and ideas as shaped mainly by learning.

Microculture

A distinct pattern of learned and shared behavior and thinking found within a larger culture.

Symbol

An object, word, or action within culturally defined meaning that stands for something else; most symbols are arbitrary.

Holism

The view that one must study all aspects of a culture to understand it.

Globalization

Increased and intensified international ties related to the movement of goods, information, and people.

Localization

The transformation of global culture by local cultures into something new.

Class

A way of categorizing people on the basis of their economic position in society, usually measured in terms of income or wealth.

“Race”

A way of categorizing people into groups on the basis of supposedly homogeneous and largely superficial biological traits such as skin color or hair characteristics.

Ethnicity

A way of categorizing people on the basis of the shared sense of identity based on history, heritage, language, or culture.

Indigenous People

People who have a long-standing connection with their home territories that predates colonial or outside societies.

gender

A way of categorizing people based on their culturally constructed and learned behaviors and ideas as attributed to males, females, or blended genders.

Ethnocentrism

Judging another culture by the standards of one’s own culture rather than by the standards of that particular culture.

Natural Selection

The process by which organisms better adapted to the environment reproduce more effectively compared with less well-adapted forms.

Evolution

Inherited and cumulative change in the characteristics of a species, population, or culture.

Fossil

The preserved remains of a plant or animal of the past.

Artifact

A portable object made or modified by humans

Primates

An order of mammals that includes modern humans

Sociality

The preference for living in groups and interacting regularly with members of the same species

Foraging

Obtaining food available in nature through gathering, hunting, or scavenging

Great Apes

A category of large and tailless primates that includes orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and humans

Brachiation

Arboreal travel, using the forelimbs to swing from branch to branch that is distinct to apes.

Knuckle-walking

A form of terrestrial travel that involves walking flat-footed while supporting the upper body on the front fingers bent beyond the knuckles.

Rainforest

An environment found at mid-latitudes of tall, broadleaf evergreen trees, with annual rainfall of 400 centimeters (or 60 inches) and no dry season.

Hominins

A category of primates that includes modern humans and extinct species of early human ancestors that are more closely related to humans than to living chimpanzees and bonobos.

Bipedalism

Upright locomotion on two feet

Australopithecines

A category of several extinct hominin species found in East and Central Africa that lived between 4.5 and 3 million years ago.

Savanna

An environment that consists of open plains with tall grasses and patches of trees.

Archaic Homo

A category of several extinct hominin species that lives from 2.4 million years to 19,000 years ago and is characterized by different stone tool traditions, depending on the species.

Oldowan Tradition

The oldest hominin tool kit, characterized by core tools and flake tools

Acheulian Tradition

The tool kit of H. Erectus, used from 1.7 million years ago to 300,000 years ago and characterized by handaxes.

Mousterian Tradition

The tool kit of the Nethandreals, characterized by small, light, and more specialized flake tools, such as points, scrapers, and awls

Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH)

The species to which modern humans belong and also referred to by that term; first emerged in Africa between 300,000 and 160,000 years ago and then spread throughout the Old and New Worlds

Upper Paleolithic

The period of modern human occupation in Europe and Eurasia (including the Middle East) from 45,000 to 40,000 years ago to 12,000 years ago, characterized by microlithic tools and prolific cave art and portable art

Cro-Magnons

The first modern humans in Europe, dating from 40,000 years ago

Clovis Tradition

Tool kit of a New World population characterized by the Clovis point with the earliest site dated to 11,000 years ago in the Southwest United States

Sedentism

Residence in permanent settlements such as villages, towns, and cities, which began with plant and animal domestication and intensified during the Neolithic Era and the emergence of farming

Domestication

A process by which human selection causes changes in the genetic material of plants and animals

Neolithic Revolution

A time of rapid transformation in technology, related to plant and animal domestication, which includes tools such as sickle blades and grinding stones

Tell

A human-made mound resulting from the accumulation of successive generations of house construction, reconstruction, and trash

Anthropogenic

Caused by humans

Fieldwork

Research in the field, which is any place where people and culture are found

Participant Observation

Basic fieldwork method in cultural anthropology that involves living in a culture for a long time while gathering data

Multisited Research

Fieldwork conducted in more than one location to understand the culture of dispersed members of the culture or relationship among different levels of culture

Kula

A trading network, linking many of the Trobriand Islands, in which men have long-standing partnerships for the exchange of everyday goods, such as food, as well as highly. valued necklaces and armlets

Informed Consent

An aspect of fieldwork ethics requiring that the researcher inform the research participants of the intent, scope, and possible effects of the proposed study and seek their consent to be in the study

Rapport

A trusting relationship between the researcher and the study population

Culture Shock

Persistent feelings of uneasiness, loneliness, and anxiety that often occur when a person’s shifted from one culture to another

Deductive Approach (to research)

A research method that involves posing a research question or hypothesis, gathering data related to the question, and then assessing the findings in relation to the original hypothesis

Etic

An analytical framework used by outside analysts in studying culture

Inductive Research (to research)

A research approach that avoids hypothesis formation in advance of the research and instead takes its lead from the culture being studied

Emic

Insiders’ perceptions and categories, and their explanations for why they do what they do

Quantitative Data

Numeric information

Qualitative Data

Nonnumeric information

Mixed Methods

Data collection and analysis that integrates quantitative and qualitative approaches for a more comprehensive understanding of culture

Computational Anthropology

A research approach that uses large quantitative datasets available through Google, telephone use, and other computer-based sources to provide large-scale information about human preferences, values, and behaviors

Interview

A research technique that involves gathering verbal data through questions or guided conversation between at least two people

Questionnaire

A formal research instrument containing a preset series of questions that the anthropologist asks in a face-to-face setting, by main, e-mail, or telephone

Indigenous Knowledge

Local understanding of the environment, climate, and other matters related to livelihood and well-being

Ethnography

A firsthand, detailed description of a living culture, based on personal obersvation

Collaborative Research

An approach to learning about culture that involves anthropologists working with members of the study population as partners and participants rather than as “subjects”

Economic System

The linked process of livelihood, consumption, and exchange

Food Security

The ability of an individual, household, group, or country to obtain an adequate diet over time to sustain health

Mode of Livelihood

The dominant way of making a living in a culture

Poverty

Lack of access to tangible or intangible resources that contribute to life and the well-being of a person, group, country, or region

Subjective Well-Being

How people experience the quality of their lives based on their lives based on their perception of what is a good life

Extensive Strategy

A form of livelihood involving temporary use of large areas of land and a high degree of spatial mobility

Division of Labor

How a society distributes various tasks depending on factors such as gender, age, and physical ability

Use Rights

A system of property relations in which a person or group has socially recognized priority in access to particular resources such as gathering, hunting, and fishing areas, and water holes

Horticulture

A mode of livelihood based on growing domesticated crops in gardens, using simple hand tools

Manioc, or Cassava

A starchy root crop that grows in the tropics and requires lengthy processing to make it edible, including soaking it in water to remove toxins and then scraping it into a mealy consistency

Pastoralism

A mode of livelihood based on keeping domesticated animals and their products, such as meat and milk, for most of the diet

Agriculture

A mode of livelihood that involves growing crops with the use of plowing, irrigation, and fertilizer

Intensive Strategy

A form of livelihood that involves continuous use of the same land and resources

Family Farming

A form of agriculture in which farmers produce mainly to support themselves but also produce goods for sale in the market system

Industrial Capital Agriculture

A form of agriculture that is capital-intensive, substituting machinery and purchased inputs for human and animal labor

Industrial/digital Economy

A mode of livelihood in which goods are produced through mass employment in business and commercial operations and through the creation and movement of information through electronic media

Formal Sector

Salaried or wage-based work registered in official statistics

Informal Sector

Work that is not officially registered and sometimes illegal

Four fields of anthropology

Linguistic, cultural, biological, archaeology

Garbage Project

Anthropologic event, college students using archaeology to study consumer patterns through studying garbage

Participant Observation

Learning about a culture by living in it for an extended period of time

Multi-sited research

Fieldwork conducted on one topic but in multiple different places

Bipedalism

The evolution of walking on two legs

Primate characteristics

An order of mammals that ranges in size, with different facial structures and eating patterns. Most primates are boreal (tree-dwelling), quadrupedal (moving on all fours), and diurnal (active during the day)

Culture

Behavior that is learned and shared

Nonhuman primate culture

Cultural aspects found in the lives of nonhuman primates, like chimpanzees and bonobos.