ANT 1001 Final Exam

Tribe

a social division, often larger than a band or clan, composed of multiple kin-ordered groups (clans or villages) shared a common language, culture, and territory

Social Control

any means to maintain behavioral norms and regulate conflict

Egalitarian Society

a social structure characterized by the absence of formal, hereditary, or institutionalized inequality, where all members have roughly equal access to power, prestige, and resources

Ranked Society

a form of social organization, often characterizing cheifdoms, where individuals or kin groups are ordered hierarchically by prestige, yet everyone retains equal access to basic resources

Stratified Society

a social structure featuring a formal, hierarchical division into two or more distinct layers, characterized by unequal access to wealth, power, and prestige

Class

hierarchical, social category defined primarily by economic factors, such as wealth, occupation, and ownership of the means of production, which shapes individuals’ life chances, power, and cultural practices

Ideologies

a comprehensive system of shared beliefs, values, and ideas that shape a group’s worldview, interpreting social reality, and guiding behavior

Myths

a sacred, traditional narrative that explains the fundamental origins, beliefs, and values of a culture rather than a false story

Rituals

stylized, repetitive sequences of actions, behaviors, or ceremonies that embody a group’s core beliefs and values

Animism

the belief that all things, animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, and human handiwork possess a distinct spiritual essence, soul, or agency

Individualistic Cult/Organization

the least complex type of religious organization, where every person acts as their own religious specialist

Shamanistic Cults/Organizations

a type of religious organization featuring part-time specialists, known as shamans, who act as intermediaries between the human world and the supernatural realm on behalf of clients

Communal Cults/Organizations

a type of religious organization where groups of ordinary people, rather than full-time specialists, conduct religious rituals for the benefit of the entire community or a specific subgroup

Ecclesiastical Cults/Organizations

highly complex, bureaucratized religious systems found in state-level socities

Ancestral Cults/Organizations

an integrated system of religious beliefs and ritual practices focused on the continued existence of deceased ancestors and their active influence on the lives of the living

Shaman

(medicine man) part-time religious specialist who uses his special relationship to supernatural powers for curing members of his group and harming members of other groups

Totemism

a form of communal cult in which all members of a kin group have mystical relationships with one or more natural objects

Priests

a kind of religious specialist, often full-time, who officiates at rituals

Psychological Approach

the notion that the emotional or affective satisfactions people gain from religion are primary

Sociological Approach

the effects of religion on maintaining the institutions of society by instilling common values, creating solidarity, controlling behavior, and so forth

Aesthetic

qualities that make objects, actions, or language more beautiful or pleasurable, according to culturally relative and variable standards

Performance Arts

forms of art such as music, percussion, song, dance, and theater/drama that involve sound and/or stylized body movements

Body Arts

artificial artistic enhancement or beautification of the human body by painting, tattooing, scarification, or other means

Visual Arts

arts produced in a material or tangible form, including basketry, pottery, textiles, paintings, sculptures, masks, carving, and the like

Nationality

an ethnic group that claims a right to a discrete homeland and to political autonomy and self-determination

Sub-nationality

a dependent subgroup within a larger nationality that lacks the concept of a separate homeland and makes no claim to any inherent right to political autonomy and self-determination

Civilization

a form of complex society in which many people live in crisis

Homeland

a geographical region over which a particular ethnic group feels it as exclusive rights

Ethnogenesis

the creation of a new ethnic group

Artificial Countries

multinational countries created by external powers, usually applied to former colonies

Applied Anthropology

subfield whose practitioners use anthropological methods, theories, and concepts to solve practical, real-world problems; practitioners are often employed by a governmental agency or private organization