Anthropology: Core Vocabulary and Key Concepts

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering foundational subfields, core theories, methods, and contemporary debates in anthropology, from culture and fieldwork to globalization, art, development, and business applications.

Anthropology

The holistic study of humans—our biology, culture, language, history, and social life.

Biological Anthropology

Subfield that examines humans as living organisms, evolution, health, and rejects race as a biological fact.

Cultural Anthropology

Subfield that explores how different groups live, think, and organize society, studying both visible and invisible practices.

Linguistic Anthropology

Subfield that studies language use, identity formation, and how language shapes culture.

Archaeology

Subfield that investigates past cultures through material remains such as tools, buildings, and bones.

Applied Anthropology

Use of anthropological knowledge to solve real-world problems in health, education, agriculture, and more.

Culture

Learned and shared patterns of behavior, belief, and material life transmitted across generations.

Material Culture

Physical objects created by humans (tools, phones, art) that shape and reflect cultural life.

Holism

Anthropological principle of studying humans as interconnected bodies, minds, histories, and societies.

Fieldwork

Extended on-site research in a community to observe and participate in daily life.

Participant Observation

Fieldwork method in which anthropologists actively take part in community activities while observing.

Informant

Community member who shares knowledge and perspectives with the anthropologist.

Ethnography

Both the fieldwork method and the written/visual product that describes a culture.

Ethnographic Present

Writing style that portrays cultures as timeless and unchanging, often criticized as unrealistic.

Armchair Anthropologist

Early scholar who relied on second-hand reports (missionaries, colonial officers) instead of fieldwork.

Reflexivity

Critical self-awareness of how a researcher's identity and interactions shape knowledge production.

Interpretive Turn

Shift (led by Geertz) toward viewing culture as systems of meaning that require interpretation, not just measurement.

Thick Description

Geertz’s concept of deeply contextual interpretation that explains the cultural meaning behind actions.

Hermeneutics

Study of interpretation; in anthropology, the process of understanding symbols and meanings.

Hermeneutic Circle

Back-and-forth movement between preconceptions and new observations in interpreting culture.

Collaborative Ethnography

Approach that shares authorship and interpretation with the people studied, including multiple voices.

Multi-Sited Ethnography

Research strategy that follows people, goods, or ideas across multiple locations.

Cyborg Anthropology

Study of interactions between humans and technology as hybrid social beings.

Objectivation

Idea that science constructs—rather than merely discovers—its objects of study.

Positivism

Philosophical stance that valid knowledge comes only from measurable, observable facts; critiqued by anthropologists.

Situated Knowledge

Recognition that all knowledge is produced from a specific position, never fully objective.

Ethnocentrism

Judging other cultures by the standards of one’s own culture, often leading to bias.

Cultural Relativism

Understanding other cultures on their own terms without imposing external judgments.

Agency

Capacity of individuals to act, make choices, and transform their cultural environment.

Cultural Imperialism

Domination of weaker cultures by powerful ones through media, markets, or politics.

Cultural Hybridity

Creative blending of elements from different cultures to produce new forms.

Diaspora

Community living outside its ancestral homeland while maintaining connections to it.

Trans-border Identity

Sense of belonging that spans national boundaries, common among migrants.

Flexible Citizenship

Strategic mobility of wealthy individuals who use multiple national affiliations for advantage.

Postnational Ethos

Orientation that prioritizes global or transnational identities over nationalist ones.

Human Rights Universalism

View that certain rights apply to all humans regardless of culture.

Rights as Culture

Perspective that conceptions of rights are shaped by local cultural values and practices.

Development Disjuncture

Gap between planned development goals and messy real-world outcomes.

Techno-Managerial View (of Development)

Sees development problems as technical glitches fixable by better planning.

Critical Neo-Marxist View

Argues development reinforces global inequality and benefits wealthy nations.

Foucauldian Power-Knowledge

Idea that development projects produce power relations through the knowledge they create.

Practice-First View

Approach focusing on local actions and negotiations rather than top-down development plans.

Broker

Individual who mediates between local communities and development agencies, often masking disjunctures.

Tourist Gaze

Urry’s concept of tourists’ visual orientation that frames locals as sights to be viewed.

Staged Authenticity

Performances created to meet tourists’ expectations of cultural “reality.”

Imaginaries

Shared cultural images and expectations that travelers bring to destinations.

Secular Ritual (Tourism)

View of tourism as a structured break from everyday life that carries symbolic meaning.

Business Anthropology

Application of anthropological methods to study and improve business organizations and markets.

New Institutional Theory

Perspective that businesses are socially constructed systems shaped by norms and networks.

Hawthorne Studies

Workplace research showing social factors influence productivity, foundational to human relations management.

Tertius Iungens

“Third who joins”—a mediator linking separate groups or fields (term used for W. Lloyd Warner).

Applied Anthropology

Use of anthropological insights to address practical issues; contrasted with “pure” theory.

Social Skin

Metaphor for clothing as an interface between individual bodies and social worlds.

Bricolage

Creative reassembly of diverse cultural elements, often seen in fashion hybridity.

Secondhand Clothing Economy

Global trade and use of pre-owned garments that shape identity and resist dominant fashion meanings.

Veiling

Cultural practice of covering, interpreted variously as oppression, piety, or empowerment depending on context.

Pageant Anthropology

Study of beauty contests to analyze gender, nationalism, and global beauty norms.

Primitivism Exhibit (MoMA 1984)

Show that challenged Western definitions of art by juxtaposing modern and so-called primitive works.

Ethnoaesthetics

Early attempt to study non-Western aesthetic systems on their own terms; critiqued for Western bias.

Magiciens de la Terre (1989)

Landmark exhibition presenting global contemporary artists equally, questioning Western art dominance.

Artifact Piece (James Luna)

Performance that critiqued museum display of Indigenous bodies and objects as static artifacts.

Collecting

Process of acquiring and classifying objects that reflects power, identity, and colonial history.

Salvage Anthropology

Early effort to document “vanishing” cultures, often romantic and paternalistic.

Chronotope

Bakhtin’s term for a space-time setting; Clifford used it to describe New York as mixed temporalities.

Authenticity (in Art)

Constructed value of being original or untouched; often contested by source communities.

Repatriation

Return of cultural artifacts or human remains to their communities of origin.

Polyphonic Ethnography

Writing strategy that presents multiple voices rather than a single authoritative narrative.

Opacity

Acceptance that some cultural meanings remain partially unknowable to outsiders.

Subjectivity as Method

Using the researcher’s personal experience as a source of insight rather than a bias to remove.

Cultural Text

Geertz’s metaphor for culture as something to be read and interpreted like literature.

Cultural Symbol

An object, word, or action that carries shared meaning within a culture.

Charisma (Constructed)

Geertz’s idea that leaders’ charisma arises from cultural symbols and rituals, not innate traits.

Semiotics

Study of signs and symbols; foundational to interpreting art and culture anthropologically.

Possessive Individualism

Western notion of the self as defined by owned objects; contrasted with gift-based value systems.

Gift vs. Commodity

Anthropological contrast between exchange based on relationships (gift) and market value (commodity).

Cultural Sensitivity

Skill of recognizing and respecting cultural differences in practice and communication.

Critical Thinking

Ability to analyze and question assumptions, evidence, and power relations.

Cyborg

Hybrid entity of human and machine; lens for studying technology’s role in social life.

Opacity of Translation

Recognition that some meaning is inevitably lost or altered when translating across languages or cultures.

Practical Knowledge

Know-how embedded in bodily skills and everyday practice, learned through doing.

Embodiment

Idea that knowledge and culture are experienced and expressed through the body.

Globalization

Intensified worldwide flows of people, goods, and ideas that reshape cultures and identities.

Friction (Tsing)

Metaphor for the unequal, messy interactions that make globalization work in practice.

Border Thinking

Perspective that values hybrid identities and challenges rigid cultural categories.

Quilombo

Brazilian community of Afro-descendants that symbolizes resistance, land rights, and collective identity.

Live History

Concept that historical narratives are actively reshaped in the present for political purposes.

Collective Memory

Shared recollections that bind a group’s identity and inform political action.

Autonomous Production

Economic model emphasizing community-controlled, collective labor in resistance to capitalist markets.

Order vs. Disjuncture

Tension between planned development schemes (order) and unforeseen realities (disjuncture).

Interpretive Community

Group that sustains an official narrative of success despite contradictory evidence.

Social Capital

Resources derived from social networks, often invoked in development discourse.

Indigenous Knowledge

Local, tradition-based understandings used to solve problems; sometimes reduced to buzzwords in policy.

Neo-Liberal Market Waste System

Privatized management of refuse that can deepen inequality, as studied in Pakistan.

Tourism Ritual Inversion

Temporary reversal of everyday norms during touristic experiences (e.g., Las Vegas).

Staged Performance

Cultural display crafted specifically for an external audience, commonly tourists.

Human Relations School

Management approach emphasizing social factors in productivity, emerging from Hawthorne studies.

Hybridity (Fashion)

Blending local and global clothing styles to create new fashion expressions.

Creolisation

Process of cultural mixing producing distinct new forms, often used in fashion studies.

Beauty Norms

Culturally specific standards of attractiveness that shape dress and body practices.

Abelam Painting

New Guinea art form tied to gendered ideas of creativity and ritual power.