Anthropology 1000 Final Terms

Archaeology

The study of humans through the remains of the human past and, in most cases, the description of the human past based on the material remains.

Artifact

Any portable object showing evidence of being made or used by people.

Biological Anthropology

The branch of anthropology focusing on human biology, including evolution and contemporary variability.

Cultural Anthropology

The branch of anthropology focusing on contemporary cultures.

Culture

Learned and shared things that people think, do and/or have. Can be ethnic or behavioural, etc.

Holistic

Interested in the whole of the human condition: past, present, and future; biology, society, language, and culture

Participant Observation

Involves taking part in community life — participating in the events one is observing, describing, and analyzing

Cultural Relativism

The idea that all cultures are equally valid, and that every culture can be understood only in its own context.

Enculturation

The process by which culture is passed from generation to generation.

Ethnocentrism

The idea that our own customs are normal while the customs of others are strange, wrong, or even disgusting.

Anthropology

Study of humans, genus Homo, or family Homininae.

Cultural Resource Management (commercial archaeology)

Doing archaeology in advance of development projects; often abbreviated as CRM.

Paleoanthropology

he study of hominin evolution and human life as revealed by the fossil record

Cultural Appropriation

The use of an element of a minority or oppressed culture by a dominant culture, in an inappropriate context, such as the way in which Euro-Americans use elements of Native American culture for fashion, logos, and mascots.

Etic

This approach emphasizes what the observer notices and considers important

Emic

This approach investigates how local people think

Society

People who share a large number of social and cultural connections; in the animal world, a group of animals born with instincts that cause them to occupy a particular place in the group hierarchy.

Applied Anthropology

A field of anthropology in which the research uses knowledge of anthropological methods, theory, and perspectives to solve human problems.

Theory

Products of hypothesis tested multiple times with positive results

Uniformitarianism

The idea that the processes that created landscapes of the past are the same processes in operation today.

Genotype

The genetic make-up of an organism; the physical expression of a genotype (what an organism looks like)

Gene Flow

The movement of genes between populations

Genetic Drift

The change in genetic variation across generations due to random factor

Adaptation

Refers to the processes by which organisms cope with environmental forces and stresses, such as those posed by climate and topography or terrains, also called landforms

Science

A body of knowledge gained through observation and experimentation

Sociolinguistics

The study of relationships between social and linguistic variation; the study of language in its social context

Acculturation

The ongoing exchange of cultural features between groups in continuous firsthand contact

Globalization

The series of processes that work transnationally to promote change in a world in which nations and people are increasingly interlinked and mutually dependent

Hominins

A member of the human lineage after its split from ancestral chimps; used to describe all the human species that ever have existed, including the extinct ones, but excluding chimps and gorillas.

Absolute dating

Dating techniques that establish dates in numbers or ranges of numbers; examples include the radiometric methods of 14C, K/A, 238U, TL, and ESR dating

Carbon 14 Dating

Apart of Absolute Dating

Relative dating

Establishes a time frame in relation to other strata or materials, rather than absolute dates in numbers

Scientific Method

an approach to research whereby a problem is identified, a hypothesis is stated, and that hypothesis is tested by collecting and analyzing data

Stratigraphy

The science that examines the ways in which earth sediments are deposited in demarcated layers known as strata

Hypothesis

Must be both testable and falsifiable

Quantitative data

Measurements of quantity, including such properties of size, number, or capacity

Qualitative data

Descriptive data and can also be examined and assessed. Examples include gender, kinship group, and religious affiliation

Disease

A scientifically identified health threat caused by genetics or a bacterium, virus, fungus, parasite, or other pathogen

Illness

People determine what is considered "sick" and what is considered "healthy,

Medical Anthropology

The study of health and medical systems in a cross-cultural perspective. It includes the study of biocultural adaptations to disease, ethno-medical systems, and cultural factors in health-seeking behavior

Public Anthropology

Efforts to extend anthropology's visibility beyond academia and to demonstrate its public policy relevance

Forensic Anthropology

Applies techniques from applied biology to solve crimes. Specialists in this field use knowledge and techniques from archaeology and osteology in a medical/legal setting

Disease Theory Systems

In medical anthropology, naturalistic disease theories are those theories, present within a culture, which explain diseases and illnesses in impersonal terms

Alleles

One of two or more alternative forms of a gene that are found at the same place on a chromosome

Catastrophism

The view that extinct species were destroyed by fires, floods, and other catastrophes. After each destructive event, God created again, leading to contemporary species

Dominant

An allele that masks another allele in a heterozygote

Evolution

Descent with modification; change in form over generations

Founder Effect

Occurs when there is such a dramatic reduction in population numbers that descendant populations are all descended from a small number of "founders."

Gene

The basic unit of information for living things and the primary means by which individuals pass on biological information to their children

Gene pool

All the alleles and genotypes within a breeding population—the "pool" of genetic material available.

Genetic evolution

Change in gene frequencies within a breeding population

Heterozygous

Has two different alleles for one gene — one dominant allele and one recessive allele

Homozygous

When an individual organism has two identical alleles for one gene

Meiosis

The process of gamete production

Mitosis

The process of cell division and replication

Mutation

A permanent alternation in the DNA sequence that makes up a gene

Natural Selection

The process by which nature selects the forms most fit to survive and reproduce in a given environment, such as the tropics

Melanin

Produced by melanocytes cells in the epidermis

Phenotype

The observable or detectable physical characteristics of an organism, and it is influenced by both the organism's genotype and environment

Recessive

Not expressed in heterozygote situation; it is instead masked by the dominant trait

Speciation

The process by which new species emerge

Bipedal

Walks on two legs

The genus Homo

Modern human children have a long period of childhood dependency, during which brains and skulls grow dramatically

Opposable thumb

A finger that can touch all other fingers

Primates

Apes, monkeys, lemurs; members of the zoological order that includes humans

Stereoscopic Vision

Perceiving depth

Sagittal Crest

Chewing muscles that develop on the head

Taxonomy

A classification scheme

Ardipithecus

First widely accepted hominin genus

Foreman magnum

Hole in the base of the skull through which the spinal cord passes

Oldowan tools

from the Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, are about 1.8 million years old; stone tools

Acheulean

Toolmaking tradition is associated with H. erectus and demonstrates the manufacture of tools for specific tasks — such as the hand axe. Such tools embody predetermined shapes created from a template in the toolmaker's mind

Anatomically modern humans

Evolved from an African version of H. heidelbergensis as early as 300,000 years ago. Eventually (probably after 80,000 B.P.), AMHs spread to other areas, including Europe, where they replaced the Neandertals

Clovis tradition

Archaeological evidence of the spread of AMHS can be found in the tools of fossil remains; stone tool technology

Homo habilis

Discovered in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania by Louis and Mary Leakey in 1960. The name means "Handy man" since this was the earliest hominin at the time to be discovered with tools

Homo erectus

Involved greater reliance on hunting, along with improved cultural means of adaptation. They had a greater variety of tools with symmetry, uniformity, and functional differentiation

Mousterian

Tool kit emphasized sidescrappers (1-4), notches (5), points (6), and saw-toothed stone tools (denticulates) (7). How these stone artifacts were actually used is not known, but the points may have been joined to wood shafts, and denticulates could have been used to work wood

Paleolithic

Old Stone Age (from Greek roots meaning "old" and "stone"); divided into Lower (early), Middle, and Upper (late)

Features

Non-portable remnants of hominin activities, such as walls and ditches, mounds, post molds, hearths, storage pits, or burials

Processual Theory

Emphasize human adaptations to different environments and social structure  such as exploring how cultural processes were connected to climate change, variability in economic productivity, and technological change

Post Processual Theory

Focus on why — emphasizing human agency (decisions) and the power of ideas and values when studying past cultures. Such theories use the archaeological record to examine the power, domination, and internal contradictions within a society

New Archaeology

A movement that began in America in the 1960s, aimed at making archaeology more scientific, with explicit theory and rigorous methodologies

Matrix

The physical medium (e.g., soil) that surrounds, holds, and supports archaeological remains

Association

Refers to when two or more objects are found in the same matrix

Chiefdom

A polity with a permanent political structure, hereditary leaders, and social ranking

Material culture

Archaeologists examine the material traces of human activities, focus on human modification of the physical environment, interpret cultural variation and cultural change deep into the past, and reveal evidence for past forms of human culture that may no longer exist today

Metallurgy

The knowledge of the properties of metals, including extraction and processing to make tools

Provenance

The three-dimensional location of an object within the matrix

State

A central government came extreme contrasts of wealth and social classes

Context

The evaluation of what happened to an object after it entered the archaeological record

Domestication

An evolutionary process whereby humans modify the genetic makeup of species, resulting in species transformation

Neolithic

Developed and spread, new political entities developed to manage them. These entities, also known as polities, included chiefdoms and states

Cuneiform

Writing that was wedge-shaped, created by using a stylus on clay

Mesopotamia

Spurred population growth and an increase in urbanism, and by 4,600 B.P., secular authority had replaced temple rule. Land became private property that was bought and sold, and a well-defined class structure emerged — with complex stratification into nobles, commoners, and slaves

Sedentism

The practice of living in one place for a long time

Ranked Society

Cultures in which  individuals are ranked by genealogical distance from the chief. They lack stratification (clearly defined social classes)

Mesopotamia

The area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in what is now southern Iraq and southwestern Iran

Linguistic anthropology

Studies the nature of human languages in the context of those cultures that developed them

Call systems

Made up of sounds that are automatic and cannot be combine

Descriptive Linguistics

Scientific study of spoken language, involves several interrelated areas of analysis