ANT4034 Exam 1 Study Guide (History of Anthropology)

Anthropology

"four field" discipline, holistic, comparative, interdisciplinary.

Anthro subfields

socio-cultural, physical, linguistics, archaeology, applied (practicing), ethnohistory

fieldwork

the term anthropologists use for on-location research

ethnography

the scientific description of the customs of individual peoples and cultures.

ethnology

branch of anthropology dealing with human races, their origin, distribution, culture, etc.

ethnographic record

all ethnographic accounts, old and new, taken together

hard science vs. soft science

hard science includes subjects like physics, math, or chemistry; soft science includes subjects like sociology and philosophy

synchronic vs. diachronic

diachronic is how something changes (or doesn't) over time. Synchronic is how something is used at certain points in time

Herodontus

"The Histories"

Universalist vs. relativist

universal- applies across every culture; relative- depends on each individual culture

Plato

"Dialogues"

Aristotle

"nature of humanity"

Fall of Rome

AD 476 or 632

Dark ages, middle ages

few people were learning, and those that did often did so in monasteries. political climate looking for strong leaders

Ibn Khaldun

"Muqaddimah"

Marco Polo

"The Travels of Marco Polo"

Sir John Mandeville

"The Voyage and Travels of Sir John Mandeville, Knight

Renaissance

"rebirth"; following the Middle Ages, a movement that centered on the revival of interest in the classical learning of Greece and Rome

Concept of Culture

sets of learned behavior and ideas that human beings acquire as members of society

ethnocentrism

Belief in the superiority of one's nation or ethnic group.

Amerigo Vespucci

"Reconquista", narratives, cannibalism, Concept of Immutability of Species (or "Fixity of Species")

St. Augustine of Hippo

"Confessions, The City of God", Voyages of geographical discovery

Michel de Montaigne

"Essays", "On Cannibals", "le bon sauvage"

Thomas Aquinas

"Summa Theologia", Intrinsic rights, Thomistic Christianity, Scholasticism (Middle Ages)

Bartolome de las Casas

"Champion of the Indians", "natural children"

Autonomous individual

a person who is free to choose

Enlightenment

1690-1789 or 1687-1789

Peace of Westphalia

the peace treaty that ended the Thirty Years' War in 1648

John Locke

"An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" natural law, tabula rasa

Sir Isaac Newton

"Principles of Mathematics"

Age of Reason

A movement in the 18th century that advocated the use of reason in the reappraisal of accepted ideas and social institutions.

Marvin Harris

"Rise of Anthropological Theory"

Rene Descartes

French Rationalism, Cartesian Rationalism

Monogenesis

the theory that humans are all descended from a single pair of ancestors

Polygenesis

the theory that various groups of humans appeared on earth or were created separately

Epistemology

study of knowledge

Scientific method

A series of steps followed to solve problems including collecting data, formulating a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, and stating conclusions.

Deductive logic

a type of reasoning, based on hypothetical premises, that requires predicting a specific outcome from a general principle

Inductive logic

a type of reasoning in which general principles are inferred from specific experiences

Empiricism, Empiricists

hallmark of the British school; idea of immersion in something to find the answers; Locke, Bacon

Rationalism, Rationalists

Philosophy that you can rationalize the answers to your problems, Descartes

Cannibalism

practice of eating one's own kind

cultural relativism

the practice of judging a culture by its own standards

Enculturation

the process of learning culture

synchronic

one moment in time

diachronic

a number of points in time

Subjective understanding

attempts to understand a practice from the native's point of view

Pseudoscience

A fake or false science that makes claims based on little or no scientific evidence.

Irrational philosophers

Thomas Kuhn, Paul Feyerabend

Father Joseph Lafiteau

"Customs of the American Savages Compared with Those of Earliest Times", ethnocentrism

Jean Jacques Rousseau

"Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men", "The Social Contract"

Comparative method

The means by which social scientists make comparisons across cases

Giambattista Vico (Universal Historian)

"The New Science"

Baron de la Brede et de Montesquieu (Universal Historian)

"The Spirit of Laws"

Francious Marie Voltaire (Universal Historian)

"Essay on the Customs and Spirit of Nations"

Anne Robert Jacques Turgot (Universal Historian)

"Plans for Two Discourses on Universal History"

William Robertson (Universal Historian)

savagery, barbarism, civilization

Marquis de Condorcet (Universal Historian)

"Outline of the Intellectual Progress of Mankind"

Thomas Robert Malthus

"An Essay on the Principle of Population"

Progress

to move forward

Perfectibility

using the eradication of a troubling condition - instead of its improvement - as the standard for evaluating a social policy

End of French Revolution 1799 with ascension of Napoleon Bonaparte

Defeat at Waterloo 1815

Rise of Conservatism

Fundamental Christianity; Utopian, visionary, or socialist communities; nationalism; romanticism; racism

Positivism

the application of the scientific approach to the social world

Auguste Compte

"Course of Positive Philosophy", social dynamics, social status

Evolution: biological and cultural

Charles Darwin "On the Origin of Species"

Prehistory

the period of time before written records

Analogy

A comparison of two different things that are similar in some way

Ethnographic analogy

a method for inferring the use or meaning of an ancient site or artifact based on observations and accounts of its use by living people

Lewis Henry Morgan (Classical Evolutionist)

consanguineal and affinal kin

Ely Parker (Classical Evolutionist)

Seneca (Iroquois), native informant, "League of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee of Iroquois", "Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family", "Ancient Society"; Classificatory and Descriptive Kinship terminology; Unilineal Kinship systems: clan, lineage, matrilineal, patrilineal, ambilineal, patrilocal, matrilocal, neolocal, avunculocal, endogamy, exogamy; Savagery, Barbarism, Civilization; Consanguines, consanguineal family, consanguineal kin, affines, affinal kin; Ego, mother, father, brother, sister, cross cousin, parallel cousin

Henry Maine (Classical Evolutionist)

"Ancient Law", status and contract societies

John McLennan (Classical Evolutionist)

"Primitive Marriage", female infanticide

Johann Bachofen (Classical Evolutionist)

"Das Metterrecht" (The Mother Rite)

Edward Burnett Tylor (Classical Evolutionist)

"Anthropology", "Primitive Culture", anima, soul, transmigration, ancestor worship, monotheism, polytheism; sorcerers, shamans; definition of culture

Herbert Spencer (Classical Evolutionist)

"Principles of Sociology", "Social Statics", "Principles of Psychology", Social Darwinist

Sir James George Frazer (Classical Evolutionist)

"The Golden Bough", sympathetic magic

Adolph Bastian (Classical Evolutionist)

psychic unity, Independent invention, diffusion, Heliocentric School of Diffusionism; Grafton Eliot Smith, William H.R. Rivers, William Perry: "The Children of the Sun"

Friedrich Ratzel (German Anthro-Geographer)

kulterkries

Leo Frobenius (German Anthro-Geographer)

extreme diffusionist

Fritz Graebner (German Anthro-Geographer)

"Die Methode der Ethnologie", criterion of form; criterion of quality

Father Wilhelm Smith (German Anthro-Geographer)

Heredeitarianism

Clark Wissler

diffusion; culture area concept, cultural trait

Karl Marx

"The Communist Manifesto" (with Engels), "The Critique of Political Economy", use value, dialectical materialism: thesis-antithesis-synthesis, labor theory of value

Friedrich Engels

"Origin of the Family, Property, and the State", "The Conditions of the Working-Class in England"