Anthropology 1220 - Unit 1: Introduction to Socio-Cultural Anthropology

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering core definitions, commitments, subfields, and key historical figures in introductory socio-cultural anthropology.

Anthropos

The Greek root word meaning human.

Logia

The Greek root word meaning the study of.

Anthropological Narrative

The overarching story told by anthropologists that human beings have developed flexible biological and social features working together across environmental and historical conditions to produce a diversity of cultures.

Organic Analogy

The concept that social institutions work together within a society like the organs in a physical body.

Holism

The anthropological perspective that all parts of a society are interrelated.

Biological Anthropology

A major subfield of anthropology concerned with human variation, evolution, genetics, osteology, paleopathology, and primatology, rooted in 19th-century Physical Anthropology.

Archaeology

The subfield of anthropology dedicated to the study of past cultures through the analysis of material remains, such as artifacts.

Linguistic Anthropology

The subfield of anthropology that examines the relationship between language and culture, how language is used in society, and how the human brain acquires and uses language.

Socio-Cultural Anthropology

The subfield of anthropology focused on the study of contemporary societies and cultures through methods like participant observation, ethnography, and ethnology.

Applied Anthropology

The application of anthropological data and methods from one or more subfields to address practical real-world problems.

Socialization

The process of learning to live as a member of a group.

Enculturation

The process of coming to terms with appropriate ways of thinking and feeling within one's culture.

Ethnocentrism

The belief that the ways of one's own culture are the only correct ways and that all other cultures should be judged by this standard.

Primitivism

A discriminatory depiction in which Africans and Indigenous Peoples are portrayed as ignorant, backward savages.

Orientalism

A discriminatory depiction in which Middle Eastern and Asian peoples are portrayed as irrational, fanatical, and out of control.

Lewis Henry Morgan

A Unilineal Evolutionist who proposed that all human societies pass through sequential stages of savagery, barbarism, and civilization.

Franz Boas

An influential anti-racist and anti-sexist anthropologist who advocated for cultural relativism.

Cultural Relativism

The principle that every element of a culture must be understood within the broader whole of that specific culture, rather than evaluated by external standards.