Anthropology 100: Exam

Final Exam -- Cultural Anthropology with Professor Katherine Bowie

culture

culture is the learned and shared knowledge that people use to generate behavior and interpret experience.

culture relativism

the idea that cultures should be examined based on their own context & merits, not judged by the customs and values of other cultures

ethnocentrism

idea that one's own culture is better than others

historical particularism

each society emerges from its own unique historical past

holistic

that particular elements can not be understood in isolation, but as part of a larger whole

parallel unilinear evolutionism

the idea that all societies are on the same path

approaches to study of culture

evolutionary, functionalist, structuralist, symbolic, political economy

culture shock

many people experience a kind of psychological trauma when surrounded by people speaking a language they cannot fully understand and speak only imperfectly, eating foods that are strange, people using behavior and gestures in ways they either do not comprehend or do not approve. leads to psychological and physiological symptoms

symbol

an object, word, or action with a culturally defined meanings that stands for something else with which it has no necessary or natural relationship. these are arbitrary, unpredictable, and diverse

condensation

the way in which individual symbols represent and unify a rich diversity of meanings. the symbol whether verbal or iconic somehow embodies and brings together diverse ideas.

multivocality

the same symbol may be understood by different people in different ways

ambiguous

has not single precise meaning. the complexity and uncertainty of meaning are sources of their strength

mecconaissance

open to misrecognition. people may ignore intentionally or unintentionally, the "official meaning" and or assign meaning(s) different from one(s) intended by the state

language

the shared knowledge of sounds, meanings, and rules that allows people to communicate information with one another

universal grammar

it is a theory that suggests some rules of grammar are hard-wired into the brain and manifest without being taught

the sapir-whorf hypothesis

the idea that language influences a person’s view of the world

phonology/phonemes

the smallest sound count rat that distinguishes meaning

kinship

the complex system of social relationships based on marriage (affinity) and birth (consanguity)

endogamy

marrying in the group (ex. religion, class)

exogamy

marrying outside of the defined group (ex. clan society, araks)

polygyny

multiple wives

polyandry

multiple husbands

neolocal

located apart from families of either spouse

matrilocal

custom in marriage where the husband goes to live with the wife’s community or the wife goes to live with the husband’s

bilocal

a married couple alternate’s their residence between that of the wife’s and husband’s group

primogeniture

oldest child or first born inherits more

ultimogeniture

the youngest inherits the most

rituals

a social practice composed of a particular sequential ordering of symbols in several different modalities. may include dance, singing, speech, bodily actions, the manipulations of certain objects, etc.

foraging

hunting/gathering

agriculture

labor intensive, permanent plots, use of domesticated animals

pastoralism

herding

potlatch

cultural adaptation of alternating periods of local abundance and shortage -- redistribution of wealth

consumption

dominant pattern in a culture of using goods or resourced in order to satisfy needs/desires

commodity

appears at first sight an extremely obvious, trivial thing. but its analysis brings out that it is a very strange, abounding in metaphysical subtleties and theological niceties

economics

the law of the market, the law of supply and demand, rational choice theory

religion

is a set of beliefs and practices, often centered upon specific supernatural and moral claims about reality, the cosmos, and human nature, and often codified as prayer, rituals

syncretism

the blending of features of two or more religions

polyandry

more than one husband

properties of symbols

condensation, multivocality, ambiguous, meconnaissance

ethnography

describe or studying of a particular culture

etic

outside perspective

emic

inside perspective

ethnogenesis

the rise of new ethnic groups

tacit culture

parts of culture that are explicit or directly observable

commodity fetishism

how a commodity can be imbued with meanings beyond its use value and how a commodity can hide the social relations of producers and consumers

band organization

has more cohesiveness and several men have influence and are leaders of the group. leadership is based on influence, not on formal office

situational leadership

no fixed political leaders

big man structure

greater clarity in leadership. organizes his group’s production, which is geared to the accumulation of goods that will be distributed ceremonially in exchanges with other men

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chieftainship

characterized by hereditary systems of rank, economic stratification, social inequality. power and authority are vested in the office and whoever occupies that office exercises that power

achieved status

based on personal qualifications and abilities

ascribed status

a position one inherits

dogon culture

homes are modeled on the human female form. kitchen (head of the house), main living area (body), front door (vulva)

what contributed to push factors of migration?

poverty and invasion of land

what did Holmes not share with the migrant workers?

The fact that he got better medical help

true or false -- according to Jefferson, in Mixed Blood, individuals can change race by getting onto an airplane?

true

true or false -- although some languages are written from top to bottom, ALL other languages are written from left to right

false

true or false -- ALL religions believe in supernatural deities

false

culture A traces decent from the female line and the women move into the houses of the husbands. what is their kinship lifestyle?

matrilineality and patrilocality

structural violence

social forces that harm certain groups of people, producing and perpetuating inequality in health and well-being. It includes social, economic, and political processes that manifest in both material and symbolic means of social exclusion.

foraging (hunting and gathering societies)

do not grow crops or tend to animals, rely on nature and the environment, small social groups

what is the “John From Cargo Cult”?

a group of individuals that worship US symbols and wear them in honor of the dropping of supplies from the US military. it’s a sign and ritual that expresses them waiting for the return of a the savior.

in the reading “illegal economics and the untold story of amputees” how did the women survive?

they were self-sufficient, and economically survived by a process that involved all women contributing money into a pot each month that would in turn go to each woman.

In “fresh fruit, broken bodies” who did the physicians blame for the poor medical conditions of the migrant workers and their lack of health care?

the migrant workers themselves

what was a sign of gender and status within china?

footbinding

armchair anthropologists

Sir James Frazer and Sir Edward Burnett Tylor

synchronic

understanding what’s happening in the moment

diachronic

historical events

participant observation

conducting research by living in the communities, learning the language, and participating in everyday life

fictive kinship

everyone in a culture is given a kinship term (“aunt” or “grandmother”) as a way of endearment

what does language do?

creates social identities, shapes opportunities, impacts written word

affinity

marriage or non-blood kinship

consanguinity

blood kinship

types of rituals

life cycle, calendrical, situational/life crisis

true or false -- new years always falls on January 1st

false

horticulture

plots of land are cultivated and then abandoned to lie fallow

agriculture

labor intensive, permanent plots, use of domesticated animals

nomadism

A way of life in which a community has no permanent settlement but moves from place to place, usually seasonally and within a defined territory.

transhumance

the action or practice of moving livestock from one __grazing__ ground to another in a seasonal cycle, typically to __lowlands__ in winter and highlands in summer.

egalitarian

relating to or believing in the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.

consumption

dominant pattern in a culture of using goods or resourced in order to satisfy needs/desires

commodity

appears at first sight an extremely obvious, trivial thing. its analysis brings out that it is a very strange thing, abounding in metaphysical subtleties and theological niceties

monotheism

supreme deity

polytheism

multiple spirits/deities

revitalization movement

deliberate organized, conscious effort by members of a group to create a new culture

liberation theology

focuses on Jesus as the liberator of the oppressed. emphasized mission to bring justice to the poor and oppressed, through political activism

power

the ability to influence or control the behavior of others, to exercise one’s will over others

delimited territory

organized on a territorial basis rather than kinship

centralized political structure

ruling elite, bureaucracy, populace

a principal function of state organization

suppress internal disorder and defend against external threats

cross-cultural diversity four subsystems

population control, judicial, enforcement, fiscal

population control

censuses, boundaries, citizenship categories

judicial

courts, judges, crimes, etc

enforcement

police, jails

fiscal

taxation

ethnic group

a named social category of people based on perceptions of shared social experience or ancestry.

why are ethnic groups not stable grouping or fluid?

ethnic groups vanish, people move between ethnic groups, new ethnic groups come into existence

multiculturalism

the presence of, or support for the presence of, several distinct cultural or ethnic groups within a society.

nationality

an ethnic group with a feeling of homeland, a geographical region over which they have exclusive rights

matrilineality

the tracing of kinship through the female line

patrilineality

the tracing of kinship through the male line