Anthropology - Unit 1

Anthropological Theory

Set of propositions about which aspects culture are critical, how these aspects should be studied, and what the goal of studying them should be.

Functionalism

Social practices support societies’ structure or fill the needs of its members

Culture and Personality

Culture is personality writ large. It is shaped by psychological forces.

Ecological Anthropology

Culture is a mental template that determines how members of a society understand their worlds

Evolutionary Anthropology

Culture is the visible expression of an underlying evolved and adaptive genetic code

Anthropology and gender

The ways in which societies understand and categorize sexuality are central to understanding culture

Symbolic and Interpretive Anthropology

Culture is how members of a society understand who they are and give meaning to life

Postmodernism

The constriants of observation and writing play a critical role in our attempts to analyze culture

Globalization

Culture is best analyzed by the global flow of identity, symbolism, money, and information, within a context of inequality

Cultural Ecology and Neo-evolutionism

Culture is the way human beings adapt to the environment and make their lives easier

Ecological materialsm

Physical and economic causes give rise to cultures and explain changes within them

The American Boasian Tradition

Cultures is personality writ large. It is shaped by psychological forces

Practice theory

Culture emerges from the dynamic relationship between social constriants and individual choices

Nineteenth Century Evolutionism

All societies progress, sharing a single universal culture that they posses in different amounts

Turn-of-the-Twentieth-Century Sociology

Groups of people share sets of symbols and practices that bind them into societies

Enculturation

The process of learning to be a member of a particular group

Culture Shock

Feelings of alienation, loneliness, and isolation common to one who has been placed in a new culture

Institutional Review Board

Committee organized by a university or research institution that approves, monitors, and reviews all research involving human subjects.

Hubris

Excessive pride

Cultural Relativism

Idea that a people’s values and customs must be understood in terms of the culture to which they belong to.

Ethnocentrism

Idea that one’s own culture is superior to any other

Participant observation

Long-term fieldwork that involves gathering data by observing and participating

Culture

Major way in which human beings adapt to their environments and give messages to their lives

Anthropology

Comparative study of human societies and cultures