CULTURAL ANTHR EXAM

Four Fields of Anthropology

Archaeology, Biological Anthropology, Linguistic Anthropology, and Cultural Anthropology.

Brief History - Structural Functionalism (1920s)

An early theory viewing each element of society as serving a particular function to maintain order.

Brief History - Historical Particularism (1920s)

Pioneered by Boas; argues cultures are shaped by specific history, geography, and regional context rather than racial evolution.

Brief History - Symbolic/Interpretive Anthropology (1940s-1950s)

Pioneered by Clifford Geertz; views culture as a complex symbolic system of meaning requiring interpretation.

Brief History - Culture and Power (1960s)

Focuses on how cultural beliefs and norms are shaped by powerful societal structures and institutions.

Brief History - Political Economy (2000s)

Examines how external global forces (war, colonialism, neocolonialism, spread of hegemonic ideas) shape cultural thinking.

First Formal Definition of Culture

Provided by E.B. Tylor as "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society."

Cultural Relativism

Understanding a group's beliefs and practices within their own cultural context, without making immediate external judgments.

Ethnocentrism

The belief that one's own culture or way of life is normal, natural, and superior to others, using home standards to judge foreign customs.

Cultural Materialism

An anthropological framework arguing that physical and economic conditions (technology, environment, food production) are the primary drivers shaping social structures and beliefs.

Characteristics of Culture

A system of knowledge, beliefs, patterns of behavior, artifacts, and institutions created, learned, shared, and contested by a group of people.

Applied Anthropology

Using the tools, theories, and methods of anthropology to solve practical, real-world problems (e.g., designing vaccine outreach).

Armchair Anthropology

A passive form of early anthropology where scholars drew conclusions from afar using travel logs and colonial reports instead of direct fieldwork.

Anthropology

The study of the full scope of human diversity, past and present.

Archaeology

The investigation of the human past by excavating and analyzing physical artifacts and material remains.

Biological Anthropology

The study of humans from a biological perspective, focusing on human evolution, genetics, and adaptation.

Linguistic Anthropology

The study of human language in the past and present, exploring how language shapes culture and social interaction.

Cultural Evolutionism

An early 19th-century unilineal theory stating that all human cultures naturally evolve through the exact same sequence of development stages.

Microcultures

Distinct patterns of learned and shared behavior and thinking found within a specific group inside a broader culture.

Race

A social construct that uses physical traits to categorize people into hierarchical groups, lacking biological validity.

Class

A system of power and stratification based on wealth, income, occupation, and social status.

Gender vs Sexuality

Gender refers to social/cultural roles and identities assigned to biological sexes; sexuality encompasses romantic and sexual desires and orientations.

Ethnicity

A sense of cultural connection and shared heritage based on national origin, language, religion, or ancestral traditions.

Age (as cultural category)

The social meaning, status, expectations, and roles assigned to different biological stages of life within a culture.

E.B. Tylor

The pioneer of anthropology credited with giving the first formal definition of culture.

Lewis Henry Morgan

An early anthropologist known for developing the unilineal cultural evolution framework (savagery to barbarism to civilization).

Bronislaw Malinowski

Father of modern fieldwork who developed structural functionalism and popularized long-term participant observation.

Franz Boas

Father of American Anthropology who introduced Historical Particularism and challenged racial determinism/eugenics.

Margaret Mead

Student of Boas who studied culture and personality, adolescent development in Samoa, and gender roles across cultures.

Ruth Benedict

Student of Boas who focused on culture and personality, arguing that cultures are integrated patterns of thought and action.

Zora Neale Hurston

Student of Boas; prominent African American folklorist, anthropologist, and author who documented Black Southern and Caribbean culture.

Single Story

Reducing a person, group, or place to a single simplistic narrative or stereotype (e.g., viewing the entire continent of Africa purely through poverty).

NACIREMA - Challenge to Ethnocentrism

Horace Miner's essay uses exoticized descriptions of everyday American culture to show how easily standard home practices sound "bizarre" when viewed externally.

NACIREMA - Cultural Characteristics

Obsession with the human body, health rituals, a market-based economy, and an asset-based power structure centered on shrine shrines and medicine men.

NACIREMA - Main Takeaway

Teaches readers to "think like an anthropologist" by making the familiar strange and the strange familiar, challenging ethnocentric biases.

Participant Observation

Primary fieldwork method where anthropologists live within a community for an extended period, actively participating in daily routines while observing customs.

Rapport

Building mutual trust, respect, and acceptance with a host community through active listening, shared participation, and transparency to gather honest insights. Relationship with studied group

Participant-Observer Paradox

The dilemma where an observer's presence alters the natural behavior of the people being studied.

Fieldwork Ethics - Do No Harm

Prioritizing the physical, psychological, and social safety and well-being of research subjects above all else.

Fieldwork Ethics - Obtain Informed Consent

Getting explicit, voluntary permission from research participants after fully explaining the project goals and risks.

Fieldwork Ethics - Ensure Anonymity

Protecting participants' identities by removing real names and identifying traits in research publications.

AAA Code of Ethics Context

Formalized following controversy during events like the Vietnam War and Project Camelot where anthropological research was weaponized for US military espionage.

Mapping

The systematic analysis and spatial mapping of the physical environment where fieldwork takes place.

Social Network Analysis

Examines relationships within a community, often identifying whom people turn to in times of need (such as healthcare).

Interviews (Open-ended vs Structured)

Open-ended interviews let respondents direct the conversation; structured interviews rely on a preset questionnaire.

Life History Method

An interview form that traces a person's biography over time, examining personal changes and illuminating community relationships.

Kinship Analysis

Explores interlocking relationships of power and connection built on family and marriage systems (e.g., parent/child, elder authority).

Surveys

Structured quantitative information-gathering tools used to collect statistical data across population samples.

Sources of Information (Besides Living People)

Field notes, personal journals, historical archives, government logs, material artifacts, and oral histories.

Subjective vs Objective Knowledge

Subjective knowledge is based on personal feelings and lived experiences (emic view); objective knowledge is fact-based, measurable observation (etic view).

Culture Shock

Feelings of disorientation, confusion, and anxiety experienced when placed in an unfamiliar cultural environment.

Deductive vs Inductive Research

Deductive is top-down (testing a pre-formed hypothesis with data); Inductive is bottom-up (gathering observational data first to discover patterns and build theory).

Qualitative vs Quantitative Data

Qualitative consists of non-statistical data (stories, interviews, observation); Quantitative consists of numerical and statistical metrics (surveys, statistics).

Polyvocality

The practice of incorporating many different informant voices directly into ethnographic writing.

Activist Anthropology

An approach where anthropologists actively collaborate with marginalized communities to address inequalities and advocate for social change.

Visual and Multimodal Anthropology

The use of visual and media tools (photography, film, digital platforms) to conduct and present anthropological research.

PhotoVoice

A participatory method where community members take photos documenting their own lives and social issues to drive public change.

Economic Anthropology

The study of how human beings make a living, adapt to environments, and organize production, consumption, and exchange.

Modes of Production

The social, technological, and environmental systems used to produce the material means of life.

Property Rights vs Use Rights

Property rights involve legal ownership and exclusive control over resources; use rights grant cultural permissions to utilize resources without ownership.

Foraging

A subsistence strategy centered on hunting wild animals and gathering wild vegetation.

Horticulture

Small-scale, non-industrial cultivation of crops using simple hand tools.

Pastoralism

A subsistence strategy based on herding, breeding, and domesticating animals.

Small-Scale Agriculture

Crop cultivation focused primarily on local farming needs and community consumption.

Large-Scale Industrial Farming

High-density, fast-paced food production utilizing heavy technology, machinery, and chemical inputs.

Minimalism vs Consumerism

Minimalism focuses on meeting basic survival needs with limited consumption; Consumerism is driven by continuous acquisition of material goods.

Balanced Exchange

An exchange where goods or services of equal value are given and received (e.g., equal trade).

Unbalanced Exchange

A market exchange system driven by profit, supply, and demand where one party receives significantly less value than they give.

Reciprocal Exchange

Informal exchange of goods/services built on social relationships, trust, and long-term mutual obligation.

Redistribution

Gathering resources into a central location (e.g., taxes or chiefdoms) and reallocating them back through the community.

Colonialism

A nation-state extending political, economic, and military power across borders to exploit foreign raw materials, cheap labor, and markets.

Triangle Trade

Historical transatlantic economic network exchanging enslaved humans, raw goods, and manufactured items across Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

Primitive Accumulation

taking land or resources that everyone used to share and turning them into private property

Modernization Theory

The belief that all societies advance along a linear developmental track from traditional state to modern industrial economy.

Dependency Theory

The framework arguing that global economic systems keep former colonies impoverished to extract cheap resources for wealthy nations.

Core vs Periphery vs Semi-Periphery

Core states are wealthy industrial capital hubs; Periphery states are exploited for raw materials/cheap labor; Semi-periphery states fall in between.

Why Development Theories are Problematic

They frequently force Western economic models on diverse nations, violate local sovereignty, and enforce austerity on public services.

Neoliberalism

An economic philosophy promoting free market growth, deregulation, and privatization as the ultimate path to prosperity.

Fordism

Mass assembly-line industrial production combined with living wages for manufacturing workers.

Flexible Accumulation

Modern corporate strategies relying on global offshoring, outsourcing, and flexible labor to minimize production costs.

Global Cities

Major metropolitan hubs (e.g., New York, Tokyo) functioning as key command points for global finance and international trade.

Commodity Chain

The full global network of extractions, manufacturing steps, and distribution channels involved in creating a market product.

Descriptive Linguistics

The study of the formal structural units (phonemes, grammar, syntax) of a specific language.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

The theory that the structure and vocabulary of a language shape how its speakers perceive and think about reality.

Language Stratification

Hierarchically ranking language dialects, exalting elite speech patterns while marginalizing non-standard dialects.

African American Vernacular English (AAVE)

A rule-governed, linguistically complex dialect of English spoken natively within African American communities.

Code-Switching

Alternating between different language varieties, registers, or dialects depending on the social context.

Language and Gender

How gender identities and cultural expectations influence conversational patterns, speech styles, and vocabulary choices.

Historical Linguistics

The branch of linguistics studying how languages change, branch, and evolve across time.

Language Continuum

A geographic chain where adjacent regional dialects remain mutually intelligible, but endpoints are distinct languages.

Language Revitalization

Systematic efforts to document, teach, and preserve endangered languages to prevent their extinction.

Digital Divide

The unequal access to modern digital communication technologies and its impact on language development across populations.

Baseball Magic - Rituals

Prescribed, formal behaviors routines performed in fixed settings to handle uncertainty and influence outcomes (e.g., batting routines).

Baseball Magic - Superstitions

Unrationalized beliefs that specific actions, lucky objects, or words directly cause good or bad outcomes.

Baseball Magic - Taboos

Strongly forbidden actions or social behaviors believed to cause immediate bad luck or harm if violated.