ANTHRO 2: Kinship/Cultural Practices

Kinship

Social relationships based on blood or marriage.

Status

Position within a cultural hierarchy.

Role

Set of expected behaviors in a status.

Consanguinal ties

Blood relationships within a family.

Affinal ties

Connections through marriage or partnership.

Chosen kin

Non-biological relationships resembling family bonds.

Patrilineal descent

Inheritance traced through the father's line.

Matrilineal descent

Inheritance traced through the mother's line.

Bilateral descent

Inheritance from both maternal and paternal sides.

Endogamy

Marriage within a specific social group.

Exogamy

Marriage outside a specified group.

Nuclear family

Two parents and their children living together.

Extended family

Three or more generations living together.

Stem family

Couple and one adult child with family.

Joint family

Large extended family with multiple generations.

Polygamy

Marriage involving more than two partners.

Polygyny

One man married to multiple women.

Polyandry

One woman married to multiple men.

Dowry

Payment made to groom's family at marriage.

Bride wealth

Payment made to bride's family at marriage.

Matrilocal residence

Couple lives with wife's family.

Patrilocal residence

Couple lives with husband's family.

Communication

Process of sending and receiving meaningful messages.

Language

System of symbols with shared meanings.

Ethnosemantics

the study of the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences in particular cultural contexts

Rituals

Ceremonial acts performed in cultural contexts.

kinship terminology

the terms used in a language to describe relatives

Family of Orientation vs. Family of Procreation

Family into which one is born, and family one creates through and following marriage

avuncular residence

couples live with the maternal uncle of the husband

two-spirit

an alternative gender role in native North America

Adopted daughter marriage

Daughters adopted to become future daughters-in-law.

Language vs. Communication

differences and distinctions between symbol systems/methods of conveying information

Formal properties of human language

Sounds, vocab, syntax

Non-verbal forms of communication

• Sign language

-Posture and gait

• Facial expressions

• Eye contact

• Gestures

• Sounds

• Territoriality and personal space

• Personal appearance

-Silence

Critical media journalism/theory

Critical media theory is an analytical framework that examines the relationship between media, culture, and society, focusing on how media influences power structures and social dynamics.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf's hypothesis that language creates ways of thinking and perceiving

Sociolinguistics

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

Critical discourse analysis

an approach within linguistic anthropology that examines how power and social inequality are reflected and reproduced in communication

Why is studying supernatural beliefs challenging?

To study supernatural beliefs, anthropologists must cultivate a perspective of cultural relativism and strive to understand beliefs from an emic or insider's perspective. Imposing the definitions or assumptions from one culture on another is likely to lead to misunderstandings.

E.B. Tylor's definition of religion

belief in supernatural beings

Durkheim on religion

A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, i.e., things set apart and forbidden--beliefs and practices which unite in one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them.

4 characteristics of most belief systems

Cosmology

Supernatural

Rules governing behavior

Rituals

Examples of cosmology

Ancient greeks (Chaos)

Navajo (First Man & First Woman)

Genesis

Anthropomorphic vs zoomorphic

Anthro - human form/ Zoo - animal form

Animatism vs. Animism

Animatism is belief in impersonal supernatural force, animism is the belief plants, animals, and inanimate objects have souls

Monotheism vs. Polytheism

Monotheism is belief in one God and Polytheism is the belief in many Gods.

Priest vs shaman vs prophet

Shamans receive authority directly from supernatural beings through personal revelation, while priests inherit authority through religious traditions and rituals. Prophets have authority based on personal charisma and receiving divine revelations, which they use to challenge the status quo.

Relationship b/w religion and magic

In anthropology, religion is generally considered to be more communal and social, while magic is more individualistic and private. Religion is often associated with faith and worship, while magic is associated with manipulation and control.

Marriage rules

Norms specifying who can marry whom in a society, and when.

What is marriage

no definition of marriage broad enough to apply easily to all societies and situations

-establishes legal parentage of children

-gives spouses rights

Pigdin

A simplified form of speech developed from two or more languages

Creole

A language that results from the mixing of a colonizer's language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated.

Vertical function of kinship

The way in which all kinship systems tend to provide social continuity by binding together different generations.

Horizontal function of kinship

The ways in which all kinship systems, by requiring people to marry outside their own small kinship group, function to integrate the total society through marriage bonds between otherwise unrelated kin groups.

Kinship charts

how anthropologists record kinship systems

Spiritual/fictive kinship

chosen family, foster parents etc

cross-cousin marriage

marriage between an individual and the child of his or her mother's brother or father's sister

parallel cousin marriage

marriage between the children of a parent's same-sex siblings (mother's sisters, father's brothers)

What is language's 5 characteristics

Symbolic/arbitrary/systematic/shared/learned

Descriptive linguistics

the study of the sounds, symbols, and gestures of a language, and their combination into forms that communicate meaning

1st paradigm of language

Documentation, grammar description, classification

2nd paradigm of language

language is studied in the context of the situation and relative to the community speaking it

3rd paradigm of language

investigations of personal and social identities

shared ideologies

construction of narrative interactions among individuals

Strong linguistic determinism

language determines thought; opposite of universalism

Weak linguistic determinism

language influences thought, also called Whorfian hypothesis (relativity)

Religion as evolution

Animism -> Polytheism -> Monotheism -> Science (Tylor)

Functionalist approach to religion

Religion is a set of symbols (Geertz)

Religious pluralism

the condition in which one or more religions coexist either as complementary to each other or as competing systems

Religious syncretism

The attempt to reconcile or blend the beliefs and practices of various religions into one.

Fundamentalism

Literal interpretation and strict adherence to basic principles of a religion (or a religious branch, denomination, or sect).