IB Exam Study - Social and Cultural Anthropology SL

Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies

Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies, published by Seth Holmes in 2013, explores the suffering of Indigenous Mexican migrant workers as a part of the modern food system.

Methodology of Fresh fruit, Broken Bodies

Seth Holmes Utilizes Participant Observation, and Immersion to understand the suffering of the Triqui people

Belief and Knowledge

A set of convictions, values and viewpoints regarded as “the truth” and shared by members of a social group. These are underpinned and supported by known cultural experience.

Change

The alteration or modification of cultural or social elements in a society. Change may be due to internal dynamics within a society, or the result of contact with another culture, or a consequence of globalization.

Culture

Culture refers to organized systems of symbols, ideas, explanations, beliefs and material production that humans create and manipulate in the course of their daily lives.

Identity

Identity can refer either to the individual’s private and personal view of the self—this is sometimes referred to as the “moi”—or the view of an individual in the eyes of the social group. Identity also refers to group identity, which may take the form of religious identity, ethnic identity, or national identity for example.

Materiality

Objects, resources and belongings have cultural meaning, described by Arjun Appadurai as “the social life of things”, and are embedded with all kinds of social relations and practices. Some anthropologists think that human experience can be understood through the study of material objects. For example, contemporary approaches focus on the materiality of the body

Power

Power is an essential part of social relations and can be considered as a person’s or group’s capacity to influence, manipulate or control others and resources. In its broadest sense, power can be understood as involving distinctions and inequalities between members of a social group. Some approaches to power focus on structural power or the capacity of power to produce subjectivities.

Social Relations

Any relationship between two or more individuals in a network of relationships. Social relations involve an element of individual agency as well as group expectations and form the basis of social organization and social structure. They pervade every aspect of human life and are extensive, complex, and diverse.

Society

Society refers to the way in which humans organize themselves in groups and networks. Society is created and sustained by social relationships among persons and groups. The term “society” can also be used to refer to a human group that exhibits some internal coherence and distinguishes itself from other such groups.

Symbolism

Symbolism is the study of the significance that people attach to objects, actions, and processes creating networks of symbols through which they construct a culture’s web of meaning.

Devil’s Playground

The Ethnographic Film, Devil’s Playground, Directed by Lucy Walker in 2002, explores cultural shifts in Amish Teenagers during Rumspringa.

Lucy Walker Methodology

Participant Observation, And Interview

Human Flow - AI Wei Wei

Ai-Weiwei’s, Human FLow, made in 2017 in Germany, represents the Human Refugee Crisis.

Methodology

non-participant observation and participant observation

Marxism

Marxism argues that this class struggle is the main driver of historical change, and ultimately leads to a classless society where everyone shares ownership. 

Neo-Marxism

focuses more on incremental change and the transformation of societal norms through cultural and ideological critique

Culture Sketches

Culture sketches published by Holly Peters-Golden in 1994, explores the Trobriand Islanders’ culture in a chapter of the book.

Carts of Darkness

Carts of darkness directed by Murray siple in 2008 explores the lives of homeless men in vancoover Canada Who collect Cans and race shopping carts.

Arctic sun

Arctic son filmed by Andrew walton in 2007 explores the interactions and social re,ations between a son and his father in the village of old crow

Age

A complex social construct that shapes individuals roles responsibilities and social statuses within a culture

Agency

Capacity for Human beings to act in meaningful ways that affect their own lives and those of others. Agency may be constrained by class, gender, religion, and social and cultural factors.

Class

Division of people in a society based on social and economic status

Community

A group of people who share a common interest or a common ecology and locality or a common social system or structure anthropologist have traditionally studied communities through the lens of ethnographic fieldwork.

Comparative

Comparison of the diverse and various ways that people make sense of their world brings anthropologist greater understanding of communities cultures and societies.

Cultural relativism

Not making value judgments about cultural differences, understanding a different culture in its context

Gender

The culturally constructed distinction between males and females

Ethnicity

A social group is connected by a shared understanding of cultural identity

Ethnocentrism

The tendency to view the world only from the perspective of one’s own culture. The inability to understand culture is different from one’s own.

Role

The dynamic aspect of status a person’s actual behavior within the context of that status

Status

The position of person has within a social system. This may be described or achieved. Person statuses are usually multiple and come with sets of rights, obligations behaviors, and duties. The individuals of certain positions are expected to perform.

Personhood

Culturally constructed concept of the individual human being the self

The self

The individuals social self is the product of social interaction, and not the biological preconditions of that interaction

The other

Anthropologist use the term the other to describe the way people who are members of a particular social group perceive other people who are not members. For example, non-Muslims may perceive Muslims as the other. Other upping may be negative.

Sexuality

A central feature of being human is highly individualized. It includes sexual feelings, thoughts, attractions preferences, and sometimes behavior.

Structure

An abstract concept, derived from all social institutions and social relations existing in a society, generally seen as the resilient regulating aspects of society that constrain the actions of its members.

Cultural Materialism

Introduced by Marvin Harris in 1968. Research strategy that suggests changes in material conditions drive cultural evolution

Diffusionism

Posits that the spread of cultural traits from one location to another is the primary driver of cultural change and innovation

Evolutionism

Universal, unilinear progression of cultures from Simple to complex states, similar to how biological species evolve..

Feminist theories

The key feminist anthropological theories are the social constructionist’s perspective and intersectionality

Functionalism

How social practices, institutions, and artifacts meet a society need

Globalization theories

Attempt to explain the increasing interconnectedness and interdependence of economies, societies, and cultures across the globe

Historical Particularism

Each society has its own unique historical development, shaped by specific processes rather than universal laws. Suggested by boas who advocated against ethnocentric models of studying anthropology.