ANT 302 Modules 3 and 4

List various ways of approaching the supernatural, including forms of ritual and prayer.

1) Hortatory rituals consist of exhortations (urgent appeals, persuasions) to the supernatural to perform some act. Ex: In the event of a shipwreck, the captain of a Trobriand canoe would exhort the supernatural powers to send special fish to guide the drowning victims to shore. 2) Prayer, involving words only, differs from hortatory ritual in its method of approach and intent. Prayer emphasizes people's inferior position to all kinds of gods, since they beseech (exhort) the gods to act on their behalf. 3) By going into a drug-induced or self-induced trance, and altered state of consciousness associated with the performance of ritual. For example, the Yanomamo use the hallucinogenic substance ebene to induce a trance and enable contact with the spirit world. Another example is the vision quest, which was performed in many North American Indian societies. 4) Sacrifice is a ritual that involves giving something of value to supernatural beings or forces. Sacrifices are made in order to gain supernatural support in areas including fighting wars, warding off sickness and misfortune, ensuring protection of crops, and providing fertility. 5) Divination 6) Shamans

Answer the following questions about "Baseball Magic": 1. According to Gmelch, what is magic, and why do people practice it? 2. What parts of baseball are most likely to lead to magical practice? Why? 3. What is meant by the terms ritual, taboo, and fetish? Illustrate these concepts using examples from this article. 4. How are Malinowski's and Skinner's theories of magic alike and different? What is each designed to explain? 5. Can you think of other areas of U.S. life where magic is practiced? Do the same theories used in this article account for these examples, too?

1. Magic refers to practices, notably the use of rituals, taboos, and fetishes or good luck charms, designed to gain control over the supernatural. People practice magic to manage the anxiety generated by unpredictable events that challenge human control. Magic is used as a response to chance and uncertainty. 2. . To professional ballplayers, baseball is more than just a game, it is an occupation. Since their livelihoods depend on how well they perform, many use magic in an attempt to control the chance that is a part of baseball. There are three essential activities of the game—pitching, hitting, and fielding. In the first two, chance can play a surprisingly important role. The pitcher is the player least able to control the outcome of his efforts. Regardless of how well a pitcher performs, the outcome of the game also depends upon the proficiency of his teammates, the ineptitude of the opposition, and luck. In the words of Boston Red Sox pitcher Kyle Snyder, "there is only so much that is within your control and the rest is left up to the so-called baseball gods." Hitting is also full of uncertainty, which is compounded by the low success rate of hitting: the average hitter gets only one hit in every four trips to the plate, while the very best hitters average only one hit in every three trips. The use of magic is associated mainly with pitching and hitting—the activities with the highest degree of chance—and not fielding. Unlike hitting and pitching, a fielder has almost complete control over the outcome of his performance. 3. Rituals are prescribed behaviors in which there is no empirical connection between the means (e.g., tapping home plate three times) and the desired end (e.g., getting a base hit). Because there is no real connection between the two, rituals are not rational. Sometimes they are quite irrational, such as kissing a necklace to get a base hit. Baseball rituals are infinitely varied. Most are personal, and are performed by individuals rather than by a team or group. Most are done in a private and unemotional manner. A ballplayer may ritualize any activity that he considers important or somehow linked to good performance. Many pitchers listen to the same song on their iPods on the day they are scheduled to start. Many hitters go through a series of preparatory rituals before stepping into the batter's box. These include tugging on their caps and batting gloves, touching their uniform letters or medallions, crossing themselves, and swinging the bat a prescribed number of times. When in a slump, most players make a deliberate effort to change their routines and rituals in an attempt to shake off their bad luck. Some players try sitting in a different place in the dugout, or driving a different route to the ballpark, or changing what they eat before the game. Taboos are the opposite of rituals. These are things that you shouldn't do. Among the Trobriand Islanders,for example, Malinowski observed that before they went fishing on the open sea, neither men nor women could adorn their bodies or comb their hair or apply coconut oil to their skin. Breaking a taboo, Trobrianders and ballplayers believe, leads to undesirable consequences or bad luck. Most players observe at least a few taboos, such as never stepping on the chalk foul lines. Many taboos take place off the field, out of public view. On the day a pitcher is scheduled to start, he is likely to avoid activities he believes will detract from his effectiveness. On the day they are to start, some pitchers avoid shaving, eating certain foods, and even having sex. Taboos usually grow out of exceptionally poor performances, which players attribute to a particular behavior. While most taboos are personal, there are a few that are universal to all ballplayers and that do not develop out of individual experience or misfortune. Mentioning a no-hitter while one is in progress is a well-known example. Fetishes are charms and material objects believed to embody supernatural power that can aid or protect the owner. Good-luck charms are standard equipment for some ballplayers. These include a wide assortment of objects from coins, chains, and crucifixes to a favorite baseball hat. The fetishized object may be a new possession or something a player found that coincided with the start of a streak and which he believes contributed to his good fortune. 4. Malinowski studied the use of magic by Trobriand fishermen. Trobrianders fished in two different settings: in the inner lagoon where fish were plentiful and there was little danger, and on the open sea where fishing was dangerous and yields varied widely. Malinowski found that magic was not used in lagoon fishing, where men could rely solely on their knowledge and skill. But when fishing on the open sea, Trobrianders used a great deal of magic to ensure safety and increase their catch. In professional baseball, fielding is the equivalent of the inner lagoon while hitting and pitching are like the open sea. While Malinowski helps us understand how ballplayers respond to chance and uncertainty, behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner sheds light on why personal rituals get established in the first place. In his experiment, Skinner began by rewarding pigeons with food after they performed the desired behavior. Skinner then decided to see what would happen if pigeons were rewarded with food at fixed intervals, like every fifteen seconds, regardless of what they did. He found that the birds associated the arrival of the food with a particular action, such as walking in clockwise circles. In short, the pigeons behaved as if their actions made the food appear. They had learned to associate a particular behavior with the reward of being given seed. Ballplayers also associate a reward—successful performance—with prior behavior. If a player touches his crucifix and then gets a hit, he may decide the gesture was responsible for his good fortune and touch his crucifix the next time he comes to the plate. Personal rituals come from our tendency to repeat any behavior that occurs with reinforcement. 5. Many entertainers and performers conduct rituals before they perform. For example, many singers do a specific set of vocal exercises before going on stage. Many holidays are ritualized, like Thanksgiving, for example, which involves cooking certain foods and saying a prayer to give thanks before the meal. Common taboos in US: avoiding stepping on cracks so that your Mother's back would not break, public nudity, not tipping waitstaff. Example of fetish: Religious objects, such as crucifixes, are placed in cars to ensure protection. Some people have a lucky pen or pencil that they use when taking exams.

Answer the following questions about "Baseball Magic": 1. According to Gmelch, what is magic, and why do people practice it? 2. What parts of baseball are most likely to lead to magical practice? Why? 3. What is meant by the terms ritual, taboo, and fetish? Illustrate these concepts using examples from this article. 4. How are Malinowski's and Skinner's theories of magic alike and different? What is each designed to explain? 5. Can you think of other areas of U.S. life where magic is practiced? Do the same theories used in this article account for these examples, too?

1. Magic refers to practices, notably the use of rituals, taboos, and fetishes or good luck charms, designed to gain control over the supernatural. People practice magic to manage the anxiety generated by unpredictable events that challenge human control. Magic is used as a response to chance and uncertainty. 2. . To professional ballplayers, baseball is more than just a game, it is an occupation. Since their livelihoods depend on how well they perform, many use magic in an attempt to control the chance that is a part of baseball. There are three essential activities of the game—pitching, hitting, and fielding. In the first two, chance can play a surprisingly important role. The pitcher is the player least able to control the outcome of his efforts. Regardless of how well a pitcher performs, the outcome of the game also depends upon the proficiency of his teammates, the ineptitude of the opposition, and luck. In the words of Boston Red Sox pitcher Kyle Snyder, "there is only so much that is within your control and the rest is left up to the so-called baseball gods." Hitting is also full of uncertainty, which is compounded by the low success rate of hitting: the average hitter gets only one hit in every four trips to the plate, while the very best hitters average only one hit in every three trips. The use of magic is associated mainly with pitching and hitting—the activities with the highest degree of chance—and not fielding. Unlike hitting and pitching, a fielder has almost complete control over the outcome of his performance. 3. Rituals are prescribed behaviors in which there is no empirical connection between the particular behavior (e.g., tapping home plate three times) and the desired outcome (e.g., getting a base hit). Because there is no real connection between the two,rituals are not rational. Sometimes they are quite irrational, such as kissing a necklace to get a base hit. Baseball rituals are infinitely varied. Most are personal, and are performed by individuals rather than by a team or group. Most are done in a private and unemotional manner. A ballplayer may ritualize any activity that he considers important or somehow linked to good performance. Many pitchers listen to the same song on their iPods on the day they are scheduled to start. Many hitters go through a series of preparatory rituals before stepping into the batter's box. These include tugging on their caps and batting gloves, touching their uniform letters or medallions, crossing themselves, and swinging the bat a prescribed number of times. When in a slump, most players make a deliberate effort to change their routines and rituals in an attempt to shake off their bad luck. Some players try sitting in a different place in the dugout, or driving a different route to the ballpark, or changing what they eat before the game. Taboos are the opposite of rituals. These are things that you shouldn't do. Among the Trobriand Islanders,for example, Malinowski observed that before they went fishing on the open sea, neither men nor women could adorn their bodies or comb their hair or apply coconut oil to their skin. Breaking a taboo, Trobrianders and ballplayers believe, leads to undesirable consequences or bad luck. Most players observe at least a few taboos, such as never stepping on the chalk foul lines. Many taboos take place off the field, out of public view. On the day a pitcher is scheduled to start, he is likely to avoid activities he believes will detract from his effectiveness. On the day they are to start, some pitchers avoid shaving, eating certain foods, and even having sex. Taboos usually grow out of exceptionally poor performances, which players attribute to a particular behavior. While most taboos are personal, there are a few that are universal to all ballplayers and that do not develop out of individual experience or misfortune. Mentioning a no-hitter while one is in progress is a well-known example. Fetishes are charms and material objects believed to embody supernatural power that can aid or protect the owner. Good-luck charms are standard equipment for some ballplayers. These include a wide assortment of objects from coins, chains, and crucifixes to a favorite baseball hat. The fetishized object may be a new possession or something a player found that coincided with the start of a streak and which he believes contributed to his good fortune. 4. Malinowski studied the use of magic by Trobriand fishermen. Trobrianders fished in two different settings: in the inner lagoon where fish were plentiful and there was little danger, and on the open sea where fishing was dangerous and yields varied widely. Malinowski found that magic was not used in lagoon fishing, where men could rely solely on their knowledge and skill. But when fishing on the open sea, Trobrianders used a great deal of magic to ensure safety and increase their catch. In professional baseball, fielding is the equivalent of the inner lagoon while hitting and pitching are like the open sea. While Malinowski helps us understand how ballplayers respond to chance and uncertainty, behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner sheds light on why personal rituals get established in the first place. In his experiment, Skinner began by rewarding pigeons with food after they performed the desired behavior. Skinner then decided to see what would happen if pigeons were rewarded with food at fixed intervals, like every fifteen seconds, regardless of what they did. He found that the birds associated the arrival of the food with a particular action, such as walking in clockwise circles. In short, the pigeons behaved as if their actions made the food appear. They had learned to associate a particular behavior with the reward of being given seed. Ballplayers also associate a reward—successful performance—with prior behavior. If a player touches his crucifix and then gets a hit, he may decide the gesture was responsible for his good fortune and touch his crucifix the next time he comes to the plate. Personal rituals come from our tendency to repeat any behavior that occurs with reinforcement. 5. Many entertainers and performers conduct rituals before they perform. For example, many singers do a specific set of vocal exercises before going on stage. Many holidays are ritualized, like Thanksgiving, for example, which involves cooking certain foods and saying a prayer to give thanks before the meal. Common taboos in US: avoiding stepping on cracks so that your Mother's back would not break, public nudity, not tipping waitstaff. Example of fetish: Religious objects, such as crucifixes, are placed in cars to ensure protection. Some people have a lucky pen or pencil that they use when taking exams.

Analyze the American wedding as an example of a rite of passage. Discuss the three stage of your example: separation, transition, and reincorporation. How does the rite of passage publicly mark an individual's movement from one social status to another? Does the rite of passage use imagery of death and rebirth? Does it involve some form of physical operation upon the body? What kinds of emotional states do participants in the ritual tend to experience?

1. Separation: The first stage, which involves the separation of the individual from his or her previous status as a bachelor or bachelorette, is marked by the engagement ceremony. The man proposes marriage to the woman by giving her an engagement ring, which publically symbolizes the loss of the woman's former identity. The separation stage also involves the couple having independence from their parents, as most Americans do not get married if they are still living with their parents. 2. Transition: After the initial engagement, the couple is considered to be in the transition stage of the marriage ritual, in which they are in between their old status and new status. In this stage, the couple go from being referred to as "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" to "fiancé" and "fiancée" and from being "in a relationship" to being "engaged." Technically, the couple is not supposed to live together during the engagement period, although this is not strictly followed anymore. Gender divisions within American society are reflected by the gender segregated rituals associated with the engagement period. The bachelor party and the bachelorette party are both rituals performed while the couple is engaged. Both rituals encourage uncharacteristic behavior and the violation of taboos, which are associated with the transition stage. A typical bachelor party, for example, involves an exclusively male group partaking in activities that are not considered appropriate in the domain of marriage, such as consuming large amounts of alcohol, going to strip clubs, and going to bars to hit on women. 3. Reincorporation: The final stage is marked by the wedding ceremony and the reception that follows. The ceremony includes the exchange of rings and vows, which reflects the union of the couple, and ends with a kiss, which symbolizes their new status as a married couple. Afterwards, a reception is held to celebrate the couple's new status and reintegration into society. It involves dancing, food, and the offering of gifts, which indicate the acceptance of the couple by their community. The American marriage involves public markers of the couple's transition from their old status to their new status. Wedding rings publically mark individuals as married. The wife changes her last name as a public declaration of her union with her husband. The wedding ceremony is a public event, in which guests witness the rite of passage. During the marriage process, an individual experiences the death of his or her previous identity (unmarried), and undergo a process of rebirth, in which he or she takes on a new identity (married). This idea of death and rebirth is symbolized by the veil. When the groom removes the bride's veil, she is reborn as a married woman. It is also symbolized by the act of changing the bride's name. Physical changes associated with the marriage ritual involve the wearing of wedding rings and ritual clothing, such as the wedding dress and the tuxedo. The American marriage ritual evokes emotions that include excitement, joy, love, hope, pride, euphoria, etc. Weddings have a largely positive association in American culture, as they celebrate love, togetherness, and future possibilities

Cargo cults

A cargo cult is a particular type of revitalization movement that first appeared in the early 20th century in Melanesia and represents a synthesis of old and new religious beliefs. During WWII, the American military used Melanesian islands as a base, and this was the first time many Melanesian people saw Western technology, like the transportation of cargoes of goods and supplies. Like all revitalization movements, cargo cults revolved around a charismatic leader or prophet who had a vision of deceased ancestors rising from the dead. They would arrive in a big ship or plane, bringing an inexhaustible cargo of goods and supplies. Like all other revitalization movements, cargo cults are a synthesis of the old and new. In a situation of culture contact in which tribal peoples are oppressed by the dominant society, a prophet appears who preaches seeking help from the ancestors in acquiring the very things that give the dominant society power. The cargo is seen as the secret of the white people's power. Like all forms of religion that attempt to explain the inexplicable, cargo cults attempt to offer a supernatural explanation of what it is that makes white people so powerful. Cargo cults make statements about power relations; for when the cargo comes, the present situation will be reversed and the powerless will become powerful.

Chiefdom

A chiefdom is a type of political organization in which fixed positions of leadership are present along with a method for succession to those positions. Subsistence is generally based on agriculture, which allows for a larger population and for the development of specialized leadership and religious roles. Whereas bands and tribes are fairly egalitarian, chiefdoms are more hierarchical. Redistribution is primary distribution system, but also engage in reciprocal exchange. For example, the Kwakiutl potlatch is a form of redistribution. Individuals, as well as the kin groups of the descent system are ranked with respect to one another. The chief has power, which comes from his control of the redistribution of goods. People pay tribute to the chief and then he redistributes goods based on rank. He has authority because his leadership is vested in a formal institutionalized position. The chief carries out important governmental functions. Because there are more levels of political organization, villagers give to their village headmen, who in turn give to the chief.

Mediator

A mediator refers to a third party brought in to resolve conflict between two parties. Some societies have an authority who, as a third party, acts to resolve disputes and either decides the case on its merits or plays the role of a mediator.

Nation-state

A nation-state is an autonomous state associated with national identity. The concept of nation-state links an ethnic ideology with a state organization. It developed in Europe with the rise of nationalism, which assumed that a people who had a culture and a language should constitute a separate nation, or nation-state.

Ritual

A ritual is defined as a patterned or repetitive series of actions that, when performed, symbolically communicates values and ideas to both participants and observers. These values include communicating appropriate gender roles and behaviors and the appropriate behavior of subordinates to those superior to them. Some scholars analyze ritual primarily as putting religious beliefs into practice. Others focus on the social solidarity of ritual practices. Ritual is a type of action that is culturally standardized and often imbued with special meaning. Many aspects of life are ritualized, from personal hygiene, to sports, to secular pilgrimages.

State

A state is a type of political organization organized on a territorial basis encompassing multiple cultural groups. States have developed in societies based on agriculture, as well as industrialized societies. Leadership structure is highly formal and administered by a bureaucracy. Exchange is primarily based on markets, but forms of reciprocal exchange and redistribution still exist. The state has the potential to support a lot more people than other types of political organizations do. It is organized on a territorial basis, made up of villages and districts, rather than on the basis of kinship and clanship. Social stratification is most complex in the state. The state is governed by a ruler whose legitimate right to govern and command others is acknowledged by those in the state. Power and authority allow the state to resolve conflict by making and enforcing laws and setting up a court systems, which enforces its decisions through the police.

Pastoralism

A subsistence strategy based on the herding of domesticated animals. Pastoralists move on a regular basis during the year to take advantage of fresh sources of water and food for their animals. They usually congregate in large encampments for part of the year when food and water are plentiful, then divide into smaller groups when these resources become scarce. Pastoralists often display a strong sense of group identity and pride, a fierce independence, and skill at war and raiding. Pastoralist societies most often have patrilineal descent patterns and are male dominated. In nomadic pastoral societies, the task of herding and moving the camp is in the male realm, while women milk the animals and manufacture milk products.

Industrialism

A subsistence strategy marked by intensive, mechanized food production and elaborate exchange networks. In industrialist societies, most of the population is not directly involved in the food production process. Increased efficiency in food production due to the mechanization of agriculture has resulted in a dramatic rise in the number of non-food-producers. In the United States, less than 1% of the entire population are still farmers. Those farmers not only provide food and fiber for all of the non-food-producing Americans but also for millions of people elsewhere in the world. This allows for a high degree of economic specialization. Industrial societies are highly complex; they display an extensive variety of subgroups and social statuses. Industrial societies tend to be dominated by market economies in which goods and services are exchanged on the basis of price, supply, and demand. Interactions within market economies tend to be formal and depersonalized. Religious, legal, political, and economic systems find expression as separate institutions in a way that might look disjointed to hunter-gatherers or others from smaller, more integrated societies.

Industrialism

A subsistence strategy marked by intensive, mechanized food production and elaborate exchange networks. Industrial societies are highly complex; they display an extensive variety of subgroups and social statuses. Industrial societies tend to be dominated by market economies in which goods and services are exchanged on the basis of price, supply, and demand. There is a high degree of economic specialization, and mass marketing may lead to a depersonalization of human relations. Religious, legal, political, and economic systems find expression as separate institutions in a way that might look disjointed to hunter-gatherers or others from smaller, more integrated societies.

Hunting and gathering

A subsistence strategy that depends on the foraging of wild plants and animals. Hunting and gathering societies support limited and sparse populations because people had to migrate to different locations based on the seasonal availability of the plants and animals they depended on. Hunter-gatherers live in small bands of 10 to 50 people and are typically egalitarian. Because hunter-gatherer bands are so small, they tend to lack formal political, legal, and religious structure. Hunting and gathering societies tended not to have social class divisions. Task differentiation was primarily between males and females, with men hunting and fishing while women gathered plants and took care of domestic tasks. Hunting was a more prestigious activity than gathering, reflecting the relative valuation of male and female roles in the society. The simple technology of hunter-gatherers utilized natural materials taken directly from the environment, such as stone, bone, wood, and sinew. There was no economic specialization of tools. Everyone made his or her own tools.

What is distribution? What are the three basic models of distribution?

AKA exchange; the manner in which products circulate through a society. In every society, the system of distribution is determined by the operation of cultural rules and the way in which individuals in the system interpret them. Exchange is broken down into 3 components: giving, receiving, and returning. Market exchange, reciprocal exchange, redistribution.

Acculturation

Acculturation refers to the exchange of cultural features that results when groups come into continuous firsthand contact; the original cultural patterns of either or both groups may be altered, but the groups remain distinct. Though a person belonging to a minority group begins to speak and act like those of the majority culture, he may retain some original customs, traditions and beliefs. For example, when a Japanese person immigrates to the US, he learns the cultural features of the major culture (American culture) such as English language, behavior patterns, food etc. But, in most instances, some culture features are transferred from the minority culture to the majority culture as well.(For example, Americans learn to eat sushi.) Another example is the adoption of the cultural practice of yoga in North America. Acculturation is a two-way process because both cultures will still change and be affected by each other. If enough of the cultural markers (food, language, customs, etc.) of the minority culture are lost so that members aren't able to recognize themselves as a distinct culture, then assimilation can be an eventual outcome of acculturation.

Achieved status

Achieved status is defined as a position in a social structure dependent upon personal qualifications and individual ability.

Action anthropology

Action anthropology uses anthropological knowledge for planned change by the local cultural group. The anthropologist acts as a catalyst, providing information but avoiding decision making, which remains in the hands of the people affected by the decisions.

Adjustment anthropology

Adjustment anthropology uses anthropological knowledge to make social interaction more predictable among people who operate with different cultural codes. For example, take the anthropologists who consult with companies and government agencies about intercultural communication. It is often their job to train Americans to interpret the cultural rules that govern interaction in another society.

Administrative anthropology

Administrative anthropology uses anthropological knowledge for planned change by those who are external to the local cultural group. It is the use of anthropological knowledge by a person with the power to make decisions. If an anthropologist provides knowledge to a mayor about the culture of constituents, he or she is engaged in administrative anthropology.

Advocate anthropology

Advocate anthropology uses anthropological knowledge by the anthropologist to increase the power of self-determination of a particular cultural group. Instead of focusing on the process of innovation, the anthropologist centers attention on discovering the sources of power and how a group can gain access to them. James Spradley took such action when he studied tramps in 1968. He discovered that police and courts systematically deprived tramps of their power to control their lives and of the rights accorded normal citizens. By releasing his findings to the Seattle newspapers, he helped tramps gain additional power and weakened the control of Seattle authorities.

Ethnicity (ethnic identity)

An ethnic group is a group of people that shares common cultural norms, values, identities, patterns of behavior, and language. Its members recognize themselves as a separate group and are recognized by others. Ethnic identity, or ethnicity, is an affiliative construct, where an individual is viewed by themselves and by others as belonging to a particular ethnic group. Affiliation can be influenced by racial, natal (birth), symbolic (holidays, clothing, artifacts), and cultural factors (language, religion, laws, customs, etc.). Race and racial classifications serve as a basis for making distinctions between ethnic groups. Religion is an important cultural factor in distinguishing one ethnic group from another. When religious differences are present, the ethnic conflict is heightened and intensified, as each side finds support in the moral authority of its own religion for continuing the conflict and for using violent action. One of the major ways that ethnic identity is formulated and justified is through common or shared historical experiences. These shared experiences form an ethnic group's origin myth, which serves to unite and distinguish a particular ethnic group from other groups and give it a distinct social identity. Origin myths make selective references, emphasizing those elements that point to the distinctiveness of a group, and often refer to wars since such moments of conflict offer the most clear lines of distinction. For instance, the American history taught in elementary and high school highlights the Mayflower, the Revolutionary War, and the Civil and World Wars as critical events in the formation of an American identity. But these historical lessons are not merely the objective presentation of the factual history of a specific geographical area, they also form the story of the American people, an authorized myth of our community that excludes the experiences of many groups. Conceptions of a shared history fuel ideas of a joint, shared identity. Some view ethnic identity as a resource or an instrument to be employed in pursuit of economic or political goals; it is therefore understood as situational, invoked in some contexts but not in others. For example, the African American Civil Rights Movement...

Animism

Animism is defined as a belief in the spiritual or noncorporeal counterparts of human beings. An evolutionist named Tylor theorized that animism was the seed from which all forms of religion grew. He believed that all living things were composed of a bodily form and a spiritual aspect. This evolutionary framework is questioned by most contemporary scholars, as it would be too simplistic to say that the supernatural world is simply a mirror image of people's life on Earth. Nevertheless, there is a relationship between the social structure of a society and the way in which its supernatural world is organized.

Applied anthropology

Applied anthropology, as opposed to academic anthropology, includes any use of anthropological knowledge to influence social interaction, to maintain or change social institutions, or to direct the course of cultural change. Applied anthropology is concerned with the application of anthropological knowledge to solving practical problems, initiating direct action, or contributing to the formation of different policies. There are four basic uses of anthropology contained within the applied field: adjustment anthropology, administrative anthropology, action anthropology, and advocate anthropology.

Style

Art can be analyzed structurally in terms of what is known as style. Style characterizes the art of all societies and can also be used to characterize the art of an individual or a particular historical period. For example, one can speak of the style of art particular to the Italian Renaissance period, or of the different styles of the schools of Venice or of Florence, or of the particular style of Raphael, which differs from other Renaissance artists like Michelangelo.

Ascribed status

Ascribed status is defined as an inherited position in the social structure.

Assimilation

Assimilation is a process of integration whereby members of an minority cultural community (such as immigrants, or ethnic minorities) are "absorbed" into another, generally larger, community. This implies the loss of the characteristics of the absorbed group, such as language, customs, ethnicity and self-identity. Assimilation may be spontaneous, which is usually the case with immigrants, or forced, as is often the case of the assimilation of ethnic minorities. Assimilation is usually a two-way process, as the majority culture also changes during this process. Assimilation is rarely complete; most groups retain at least some preference for the religion, food, or other cultural features of their predecessors. Example: The children of many immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries only know English and cannot speak Spanish.

Distinguish between and provide examples for the concepts of assimilation and multiculturalism.

Assimilation is associated with the elimination of regional ethnic cultures in favor of the creation of a national identity, in which the values of one ethnic group constitutes the national culture. Assimilation is associated with homogeneous societies and discourages ethnic diversity. Multiculturalism is associated with the existence of multiple ethnic groups, none of which is officially recognized as dominant. Multiculturalism is associated with pluralistic societies and encourages ethnic diversity. While the idea of the melting pot was dominant in the US, and assimilation was being emphasized, the persistence of ethnic practices in an form was officially ignored and even denied. However, over the past 30 years the US has recast its image and replaced the melting-pot symbol with that of a multiethnic, multicultural, and pluralistic society.

Authority

Authority is an institutionalized position of power. When power becomes institutionalized, we say it has been transformed into authority. In order to have authority, a leader must have power to compel people to obey him and he must hold a recognized position (hold office). Authority gives a leader the right to exercise his power and enforce his decisions. One cannot have authority without having power. Regardless of the form it takes in any given society, political power must be validated culturally. That is, the people of a society must believe that those in power have a right to govern or rule. Sometimes political power is validated by a society's religious beliefs. For example, in European monarchies the royal family is believed to be chosen by the Christian god to rule. Thus, for subjects of a monarchy, obeying their king is equivalent to obeying their god. In state-level societies, political power is validated by cultural ideology. For instance, in the United States we believe that any citizen who has the desire and dedication can, theoretically, be elected into public office by a majority vote. When we elect someone into office, we believe that we, as individuals, have collectively chosen that person out of all the possible candidates for that position. Thus, it is our belief in the democratic process, with its corresponding ideas of individualism and meritocracy, that gives an official the right to govern. Even though we may realize that people from certain groups— historically white, Christian, educated, middle- to-upper-class men—have a greater chance of being elected than others, we hold on to the belief that the democratic process is just and valid. If we were to completely stop believing in the democratic process, the political system itself would no longer function.

Band

Band organization is a type of political organization with a fixed membership that comes together annually for a period to carry out joint ritual and economic activities. During most of the year small groups of related families move from one hunting area to another. In the summertime, the whole band frequently comes together and remains as a unit for the summer. The men with influence are leaders of the group, so the band is associated with informal leadership. Subsistence is based solely on hunting and gathering. They tend to have egalitarian relationships, and social divisions are largely on the basis of gender and age. Extended families are bound together by reciprocal exchange. For example, husbands are responsible for sharing the proceeds from their hunting with the families of their wives. Example: the !Kung of Southern Africa and the Inuit of the Arctic. Example:During the reign of reciprocal exchange and egalitarian headmen, no individual, family, or group smaller than the band or village itself could control access to natural resources, which were all communal property. Among the !Kung, a core of people born in a particular territory say that they "own" the water holes and hunting rights, but this has no effect on the people who happen to be visiting and living with them at any given time. Since !Kung from neighboring bands are related through marriage, they often visit each other for months at a time and have free use of whatever resources they need without having to ask permission. If a hunter killed a big animal, he shared it equally with the members of his group, and people were not supposed to express gratitude for it and spoke of his meat as worthless. The purpose of this was to teach young men of the group to not be boastful, as too much ego leads to a man thinking of himself as a Big Man and thinking of others as his inferiors.

Define Big Man structure

Big Man structure refers to an achieved position of leadership in which the group is defined as the Big Man and his followers. The role of the Big Man is to organize his group's production and to serve as a node (a central or connecting point) in the exchange system. The Big Man derives his power from his direction of the ceremonial distribution of goods accumulated by his group and the decisions he makes in the redistribution of goods within his own group. Big Men acquire and hold power without the traditional authority that chiefly status accords and without other institutionalized mechanisms of social control. A Big Man who underperforms or who overdemands may be elbowed aside by his competitors and abandoned by his followers. The position of Big Man is an achieved status, dependent on personal qualifications and individual ability. As he ages, a Big Man may no longer be able to carry out all the activities necessary to maintain his influence in his group. In that case, his leadership position may be challenged by other aspiring Big Men. Competition between challengers involves political skills and maneuvering. The Big Man political structure is associated with reciprocal exchange systems in egalitarian societies. Ex: Abelam Big Man

Body modification

Body modification can convey messages about social, economic, or political status and class, the different phases of life, the sacred and the profane, social and religious values. Scarification and tattooing can be associated with initiation rituals. Hewitt sees a parallel between the transformation of the body and religious conversion since such self-alterations are, in effect, acts of self-transformation, ways of creating a new identity, or expressing one's individuality or affiliation with a particular sub-cultural group.

Commodities

Consumers use goods referred to as commodities, which are produced by someone else. Globalization encourages commodification. Example: Food has become a commodity. For most of human existence, food was locally sourced. This is in contrast to today's international trade in food. The use of canning, freezing, and other preservation methods has made it possible for the volume of food moving from continent to continent to greatly increase. Example: Amish communities have resisted "commodification." Amish religious beliefs have dictated the use of horse and buggy rather than modern forms of transportation like cars, and the wearing of very modest clothing rather than the latest fashion. They still farm and depend on their fields and herds to produce what they need. This is different from most Americans who don't produce their own food and just buy food that has been produced by others. Example: The sale of religious objects in Cairo, Egypt, represents a reversal of the Amish resistance to commodification. In these sales "sacred objects" have been turned into commodities. Religious objects are mass-produced in factories, sometimes even in other countries, such as Japan, for sale to people of the Muslim faith. Such objects are commonly displayed in the back window of cars in order to obtain God's blessing and protection, to ward off the evil eye, and to signal the owner's Muslim identity.

Consumption

Consumption refers to the use of goods and services by households. Consumption is determined by cultural rules. Consumption may communicate social differentiation. The material goods one possesses or wears marks one's identity.

Cosmology

Cosmology refers to a set of beliefs that defines the nature of the universe or cosmos

Cultural diffusion

Cultural diffusion ("cultural borrowing") refers to the movement of cultural ideas and artifacts from one society to another through borrowing. For example, Coca Cola has diffused from the US to many parts of the world and sushi has diffused from Japan to the US and Europe.

Cultural hybridization

Cultural hybridization is the process by which a cultural custom, item, or concept is changed to fit the culture of a society that borrows it. In almost every case, societies that borrow aspects of another group's culture adapt them to their own ways of life. Borrowed items usually undergo cultural hybridization; they are a mixture of the borrowed and the local. For example, curry in the United States tastes different from the "real thing" prepared in India.

Innovation

Culture change can originate from two sources: innovation and borrowing. Innovation is the invention of qualitatively new forms. It involves the recombination of what people already know into something different. Innovations are more likely to occur and to be adopted during stressful times when traditional culture no longer works well.

Culture contact

Culture contact refers to the situation that occurs when two societies with different cultures come in contact with each other.

Dependency theory

Dependency theory views underdevelopment as the consequence of the economic suppression of former colonies, coupled with continued economic dependence on colonial-based networks of trade and political alliances. It stressed the alliance of interests between elites in underdeveloped countries with those of Western capitalists in developed countries. Third World countries are dependent upon the Western capitalist markets for their raw materials and labor; the extraction of these resources benefited a small class of people who controlled the export of resources. Dependency theorists saw these elites as unwilling to forgo the economic benefits of continuing the dependency of their nation's export economies on Western markets. These export industries generated little significant economic growth or employment opportunity for the majority of the local population, and generally didn't create a profitable industrial base in most Third World countries. Dependency theorists suggested that autonomous national development, free from ties to the world economy, would create significant economic growth and a sustainable development strategy in the national interest, rather than serving the interests only of elites of developing countries.

Divination

Divination is a way of communicating with the supernatural. It usually involves the use of material objects or animals to provide answers to human-directed questions. The Bhils of India, for example, predict the abundance of summer rainfall by watching where a small bird, which was specially caught for the purpose, lands when it is released. If it settles on something green, rainfall will be plentiful; if it rests on something brown,the year will be dry. Chinese omens are also examples of divination. Many years ago, the Chinese interpreted the cracks in tortoise shells to foretell the future.

Diviner

Diviners are part-time religious specialists who use the supernatural to enable people to make decisions concerning how they should act in order to have success. Examples: fortune-tellers, astrologers

Division of labor

Division of labor refers to the separation of a production process into different tasks, with each task performed by a separate person or group. In hunting and gathering societies, labor is most often divided along the lines of gender, and sometimes age. In these societies, almost everyone knows how to produce, use, and collect the necessary material goods. In industrial society, however, jobs are highly specialized, and labor is divided, at least ideally, on the basis of skill and experience. In industrial society, instead of each individual or family attempting to produce all or most of what it consumes, the individual specializes in producing only a few kinds of good or service (or perhaps only small components of a single good or service) and then acquires all other desired goods or services from the production of other specialists by means of mutual exchange.

Explain the relationship between contemporary ethnic conflicts, the development of nation-states, and the history of colonialism.

During the period of colonialism, the empires of the European colonial powers were organized without considering the different ethnic groups that already existed there. he idea of nation building began in Europe, which emphasized the creation of a sovereign political state with a single national culture. The development of nation-states involved conscious culture building on the part of the hegemonic group in political control of the state- the goal being the elimination of regional ethnic cultures in favor of a national culture. This leads to ethnic conflicts within the nation-state. An example of this is the conflict between Spanish elites in Madrid and Catalan population in Barcelona, Spain or the conflict between Irish nationalists and British unionists in 20th century that led to part of Ireland breaking away from the United Kingdom and becoming a sovereign state. The process of nation building can also involve the breakup of older empires established by colonial powers. In Europe, after WWI, several nations were created out of both the old Ottoman Turkish and Austro-Hungarian Empires. However, the new nations that resulted, such as Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, and Eugoslavia, ended up being multiethnic states. In Czechoslovakia, the Czechs were the dominant group. Recently, they and the Slovaks decided that they wanted to be separate nation-states. Czechoslovakia was peacefully divided into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. After World War II the rising tide of democratic aspirations among the colonial peoples of Asia and Africa led to the breakup of empires established by European conquerors, sometimes in areas of enormous ethnic complexity, without regard to ethnic considerations. The result was a proliferation of national states, some of which experienced local conflicts with ethnic-related causes. Most of the new countries in Asia were relatively homogeneous, but the majority of those in sub-Saharan Africa were composed of many relatively small ethnic groups whose members spoke different languages.

Economic system

Economic systems are the means by which societies produce, distribute (exchange), and consume goods and services. Example: The US has a market economy, which is based on market exchange and money. The Kwakiutl have a subsistence economy, which is based on reciprocity and redistribution.

Subsistence economies

Economies that are organized around the need to meet material necessities and social obligations. Subsistence economies are typically associated with smaller groups. They occur at a local level. Such economies depend most on the non-market-exchange mechanisms: reciprocity and redistribution. Their members are occupational generalists. Most people can do most jobs, although there may be distinctions on the basis of gender and age. Most horticulturalists had subsistence economies.

Empowerment

Empowerment refers to the ability of groups or an individual to achieve their political rights or goals, to get what they want, populist action, revolt from below to subvert those in authority, and the decentralization of power to place it in the hands of the have-nots. With empowerment, the have-nots gain a voice. For example, when successive African states gained their independence, empowerment of the African populace was a primary policy. *The term empowerment can be misused by a political authority as a political maneuver to seem inclusive, when in actuality the only people being empowered are a small elite group of people.

Understand how ethnic and racial identity divides the social world by constructing an "other" in order to understand "self" according to a variety of boundary markers.

Ethnic identities are based on boundary markers that make members identifiable and divide the social world into categories of "us" and "them." In creating boundaries between "us" and "them," ethnic identities work in both oppressive and empowering ways. Ethnic identities can play a negative role,when they are externally "ascribed" or imposed upon individuals or groups, leading to prejudice, discrimination, or in the most extreme cases, genocide. An example of this is the increase in Islamophobia as a result of 9/11. However, ethnic identities may play a positive role when groups affirm and construct their own identities. In a world with growing migration, ethnic identities are used increasingly to preserve cultural heritage and to mobilize for political action—either to retain power and control over life or to regain lost power and control. An example of this is the African American Civil Rights Movement.

Ethnogenesis

Ethnogenesis refers to the creation of a new ethnic group. Ethnogenesis is the process by which a people assert a new ethnic identity and take on a new name. Contact and colonialism can produce ethnogenesis. Manipulation of the historical past is one of the distinctive characteristics of the process of ethnogenesis. The process of ethnogenesis is likened to the 3 stage sequence proposed for rites of passage: 1) Separation: involves the severing of a group's previous loyalties. 2) Transition: a liminal phase during which surviving ties wither away and new ones are initiated. 3) Reincorporation: involves the birth of a new identity, which is affirmed through the adoption of new rituals and a new mythology to validate them.

Ethnonationalism

Ethnonationalism is defined as the desire of ethnic groups within a multi-ethnic state to have their own nation-states. The process of ethnogenesis parallels the development of ethnonationalism in Europe. Ethnonationalism has led to the breakup of a number of European states, such as Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.

Ethnonationalism

Ethnonationalism refers to the desire of ethnic groups within a multi-ethnic state to have their own nation-states. Ethnonationalism has led to the breakup of a number of European states, such as Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.

Free Trade Zones (FTZs)

FTZs (AKA Export Processing Zones, EPZs) are areas in developing countries set aside for foreign-owned export production facilities. Many of the products now consumed in Western markets are produced in FTZs of developing countries, which offer financial incentives and labor regulation concessions to multinational corporations to attract foreign export production facilities. FTZs are usually located in underdeveloped areas of the host country, requiring migration of labor to staff the factories. Governments of developing countries create these zones to provide their citizens with employment in the hope of stimulating economic growth and poverty alleviation. However, the concessions made to foreign companies include the suspension of wage, labor, and environmental protection regulations they are subject to in their home countries. As a result, laborers are rarely protected with basic rights to minimum wage, secure employment, and healthy working conditions.

Factionalism

Factionalism refers to local groups building support under a powerful individual or idea vying for influence locally or within state systems. Leaders of factions vying for power may build their following in a number of different ways, depending upon the structure of the community. The faction consisting of the leader and his followers resembles the Big Man and his followers. Like the Big Man, the leader of a faction is in opposition to other faction leaders. Both the faction leader and the Big Man need to continue supporting and rewarding followers in order to hold onto his followers. When the leader in either case loses power or dies, the faction or group of followers dissolves. In this aspect, factions contrast with political parties, which continue to exist though individual leaders may come and go. However, within political parties in the US, factions may be found on a level of local communities, where party leaders and their supporters compete for control of the party apparatus at that level. Ex: A warlord and his followers are structurally similar to a faction and its leaders.

Fairy tale

Fairy tales are stories set in recognizable historical time frames imparting morals or lessons particularly to children. Characters in fairy tales are ordinary mortals.

Folktale

Folktales are stories about fanciful creatures set within a timeless framework. They are concerned with imparting morals or lessons, and usually take the form of demonstrating what happens to individuals who violate the moral code of the society. Folktales often feature a trickster, who seems to be a universal folklore figure that represents the incongruous combination of monster, loutish liar, braggart, creator and destroyer. Folktales are characteristic of particular groups, distinguishing them culturally from other groups. The folktale is thus a vehicle for transmitting to members of the group their collective traditions, values, and perceptions.

Discuss ways artistic forms have changed in a global context.

Global tourism has resulted in the production of tourist art, the manufacture of objects by local artists to meet the demands of tourist consumers, who want a remembrance of the places they visited. When style and content are dictated by what tourists buy, traditional art styles no longer completely retain the characteristics of an earlier period. For example, Navajos make crosses and Stars of David out of silver and turquoise to be sold in Albuquerque. Art has also become a commodity (see commodification of art)

Globalization

Globalization refers to the worldwide connection between societies based upon the existence of global market connections and the spread of cultural items around the world. Globalization has come to signify the rapid transformations in the lives of people in most parts of the world due to the increased flow of capital, people, goods, images, and ideas across the world, thus pointing to a general increase in the pace of global interactions and processes. Globalization has been brought about in part by the development of a worldwide network of finance and capital. This has occurred on a greater scale than ever before, and at an increasingly rapid rate as a result of advances in telecommunications and computer technology. As transnational corporations expand and "globalize," they move along the scope of regulation by nation-states, and the latter lose the power to regulate and control them. Globalization has resulted in economic success for some parts of the world (like South Korea, Malaysia and India), while other parts of the world (like some Central American and African countries) have fallen behind. Globalization represents historical continuities with colonialism and the neocolonialism of the latter part of the 20th century.

Government

Government refers to the process by which those in office make and implement decisions on behalf of an entire group in order to carry out commonly held goals. This may involve deciding to go to war to maintain the defense of the group, a decision a president must make.

Guest workers

Guest workers are people granted permission (through temporary visas) to live and work in a country other than their own.

Answer the following questions about "Life Without Chiefs": 1. What is the difference among headmen, big men, and chiefs according to Harris? 2. What does Harris see as the connection between forms of leadership and modes of economic exchange? How does this connection work? 3. Harris makes a distinction between biological evolution and cultural evolution. What is the distinction and how does he apply it to types of leadership?

Headman - reciprocity Big Man - reciprocity and redistribution but redistribution is mostly equal and egalitarian Chief - redistribution that is characterized by social stratification and reciprocity With the development of horticulture and pastoralism, it was possible to produce surplus, which facilitated the introduction of the process of redistribution. Headmen-redistributors not only worked harder than their followers but also gave more generously and reserved smaller and less desirable portions for themselves than for anyone else. Initially, therefore, redistribution strictly reinforced the political and economic equality associated with reciprocal exchange. However, this led to success in organizing and giving feasts being the measure of one's legitimacy as a headman. Soon, where conditions permitted, there were several would-be headmen vying with each other to hold the most lavish feasts and redistribute the most food and other valuables. In this fashion there evolved the nemesis that Richard Lee's !Kung informants had warned about: the youth who wants to be a "big man." With further developments in agriculture, more food could be stored for redistribution (more surplus), giving the person in control of redistribution higher status and power. For example, yams were the Trobrianders' staff of life; the chiefs validated their status by storing and redistributing copious quantities of them acquired through donations from their brothers-in-law at harvest time

Horticulture

Horticulture is kind of subsistence strategy involving small scale, low intensity farming. This subsistence pattern involves at least part time planting and tending of domesticated food plants. Horticulture deals with small scale gardening. Horticulturalists usually have a shifting pattern of field use. When production drops due to the inevitable depletion of soil nutrients, horticulturalists move to a new field or a long fallow one to plant their crops. They clear the wild vegetation with a slash and burn technique. Brush and small trees are cut down, left to dry out, and then burned. This adds ash, which acts as a fertilizer, to the soil surface. Although horticulturalists farm, they often continue to forage for wild foods and still feel closely related to the natural environment. Horticulture requires a substantial amount of undeveloped land, so overall population densities must remain fairly low. However, horticulture supports higher population densities than hunting and gathering, so horticulturalists tend to live in larger permanent settlements numbering from 50 to 250 individuals. Horticultural communities are large enough to require more complex organizational strategies. They often display more elaborate kinship systems based on descent, political structures that include headmen or chiefs, political alliances, religions characterized by belief in a variety of supernatural beings, and the beginnings of social inequality. Horticulturalists don't have mechanized farming equipment such as tractors or rototillers. They use pointed sticks, hoes, or other hand tools to work the land. Irrigation is rarely used.

What is the purpose of political organization? What are the 4 forms of political organization and their corresponding types of leadership?

In any given society, political organization serves two basic purposes: to maintain order within society and to regulate relations with other societies. But as with any other universal societal need (such as the need for a society to provision itself), there are numerous ways in which different societies can accomplish these organizational ends. Thus, political organization—like language, family organization, and provisioning systems—varies from culture to culture. Band - informal leadership through headman; leadership is achieved and not centralized; Ex: !Kung, Inuit Tribe - headman or Big Man; leadership is achieved and not centralized. Ex: Yanomamo, Abelam Chiefdom - role of chief is ascribed and leadership is centralized; Ex: Kwakiutl State - ruler or head of state; can be achieved or ascribed; centralized leadership *There is debate about whether Trobrianders are a tribe with Big Man Structure or a chiefdom.

How does the priest differ from the shaman and the magician?

In contrast to the shaman and the magician, who operate as individual practitioners and part-time specialists, priests are full-time religious practitioners who carry out codified and elaborated rituals, and their activities are associated with a shrine or temple. The body of ritual knowledge, which is the priest's method of contacting the supernatural, must be learned over a lengthy period of time.

Multiculturalism

In multicultural societies, people with different cultural backgrounds live side by side. A multicultural state is composed of multiple ethnic groups, none of which is officially recognized as dominant. Multiculturalism is associated with pluralistic societies and encourages ethnic diversity.

Boundary maintenance

Indigenous groups use various ways to assert their cultural identity as different from the dominant society. The ways they separate themselves from the dominant society are known as boundary maintenance mechanisms. For example, the Rio Grande Pueblos of New Mexico who were in contact with Spanish missionaries in the 17th century have divided their religious life into two separate domains: one that encompasses the Catholic religion and one that encompasses the indigenous belief system. The indigenous one involves katchinas (religious figurines), priests, and kivas (underground religious chambers), which are operated in secret and closed off from the outside world, including the village structure of the Catholic Church. By preserving their language and much of their ritual structure, the Rio Grande Pueblos have been able to maintain their culture and identity for more than 300 years, despite their nominal conversion to Catholicism and their integration into the US economy. Ethnic identities are based on boundary markers that make members identifiable and divide the social world into categories of "us" and "them."

Indirect rule

Indirect rule refers to the system of rule associated with the British Empire by which a small number of English administrators controlled large colonial territories by integrating local political leaders and bureaucrats into the administrative system.

Influence

Influence is defined as the ability to persuade others to follow one's lead when one lack's the authority to command them. Influence represents informal power. A leader will continue to have followers and will maintain his influence over them as long as they have confidence in his leadership ability.

Define informal leadership and headman

Informal leadership is a type of political leadership in which there is no single political leader but rather leadership is manifested intermittently. Informal leadership was found only among hunter-gatherers. The leader of the group, referred to as the headman, is constantly changing. The headman holds a recognized position, but has no power or authority. Leadership is based solely on influence, and different men exercise their influence in those areas in which they have special knowledge or ability. A man gains the followers and influence necessary to become a headman by demonstrating his leadership qualities, which include fearlessness in war, as well as wisdom and judgement in planning the course of action for the village. The headman will continue to have followers and will maintain his influence over them as long as they have confidence in his leadership ability. If his followers lose confidence in his leadership ability (headman loses his influence), they can stop following him and choose a different leader. Headmen are constantly challenged by others who aspire to the position. Another individual with supporters can oppose the headman in his decisions in order to try to gain influence and take over the role of headman. The position of headman is not hereditary. There is no fixed rule of succession, so the relative of a headman (little brother, son) is no more likely to succeed as headman than any other adult male in the village. Politics plays an important role in societies with informal leadership, since headmen regularly face the potential opposition of other people who also aspire to leadership in their village. The leadership position of the headman is an achieved status. Ex: Yanomamo headman

Internal migration

Internal migration refers to population movements within a state. The expansion of the US from the original thirteen colonies represents a form of internal migration. During the 20th century, migration from rural areas to cities represented another form of internal migration. Labor migration, the movement of people to where jobs are available, is also a form of internal migration.

The Kwakiutl potlatch and the Trobriand kula are two famous forms of exchange. Compare and contrast the potlatch and kula, showing the forms of reciprocity characteristic of each. How do these two forms of exchange differ from market exchange systems?

Kwakiutl potlatch: The Kwakiutl marriage potlatch, for example, begins with the payment of "bride-wealth" in the form of blankets by the groom's side to the bride's father. Months later a ceremony takes place in which the blankets are distributed to guests based on their rank. In this ceremony, chiefs are responsible for redistributing the wealth (blankets). Then, after a child is born to the couple, the wife's side is under an obligation to make a large return of goods to the husband's side, since the wife's group was the receiver of the marriage potlatch from the groom's group. Boas refers to this as the "repurchase of the wife" by her own numaym. When the wife has been repurchased, she is free to return to her numaym unless her husband purchases her for the second time. This would be followed by a second repurchase by her own group. These exchanges of property via potlatches could take place up to 4 times. Trobriand Kula: In the Trobriand Kula, goods are exchanged in a circle consisting of the Trobriand Islands and other islands. Two kinds of shell valuables, red shell necklaces and white armshells, are exchanged. Red shell necklaces move clockwise around the circle of islands, while white armshells move counterclockwise. According to the rules of the Kula, the receivers in the exchange always sail to the givers' island. In both Kwakiutl society and Trobriand society, the rank of individuals and groups is flexible, in that the more one distributes, the higher one's rank becomes. The purpose of the potlatch and the Kula iis to increase the wealth and prestige of the participating groups. Both the Kwakiutl potlatch and the Trobriand Kula are based on continual reciprocal exchange, as each system involves the exchange of goods based on role obligations. In both systems, if you receive a gift, you are obliged to repay it with another gift. Reciprocity typically results in a continuing sequence of giving, receiving, and repaying gifts. Both the Kwakiutl potlatch and the Trobriand Kula create alliances between different groups. The Kula does this on a much larger scale, as it establishes ties between different cultural groups, while the potlatch only brings together different kin groups within Kwakiutl society. The more extensive trade network of the Kula facilitates bartering in addition to the purely ceremonial Kula exchanges. While the Kula and the potlatch are mainly based on reciprocal exchange, which is based on role obligations, market exchange is based on the determination of market prices through fluctuations in supply and demand. The spirit of the market is to get the most, while giving the least. This contrasts with reciprocal exchange in which the actor who tries to get the most while giving the least is actually dishonorable. Indeed, the "winner" at Potlatch (and other competitive forms of reciprocity) is the actor who gives more than the recipient can ever give back. The Kula and the potlatch are considered total social phenomena because these exchanges incorporate all aspects of the societies involved. In societies like America, market exchange is not considered a total social phenomenon because it is associated with more institutional separation. While the Kula and the potlatch are both based on continuing social relationships, market exchange does not necessitate a social relationship between buyer and seller. The interactions between people involved in exchanges in market economies are typically impersonal and formal. Market exchange systems depend on the presence of money, which serves a number of purposes and can be used relatively easily. The objects exchanged in the Kula and the potlatch have value, but their use is restricted, as they can only be used for these certain ceremonies.

Legal pluralism

Legal pluralism refers to the coexistence of indigenous and postcolonial systems of law. It refers to the relationship between indigenous forms of law and the foreign (European or American) law that developed in colonial and postcolonial societies. Legal pluralism occurred in societies in which the modern Western forms of social control that were introduced didn't completely replace the older indigenous forms, but existed side by side with them. For example, after Ghana was conquered by the British, earlier indigenous forms of social control involving religion and supernatural forces have persisted side by side with the British methods of social control. Many people still believe in (and fear) indigenous supernatural forces, so these traditional forces serve as a greater deterrent to criminal activity than do modern methods like imprisonment. Example: when Muslim people from Algeria and other parts of Northern Africa migrated to France, the French legal system has taken into account the Islamic legal system (whereas Muslims migrating to the US must submit to the US legal system). Islamic law is mostly accepted by the French if there is no contradiction "with public order."

Legend

Legends are stories about heroes who overcome obstacles set in familiar historical contexts. Legends deal with the less remote past. Legends are retold to justify the claim of a people to their land and their integrity as a people. Ex: Western films and shows are contemporary versions of American legends.

Market economies

M

Magic

Magic refers to the strategies people use to control supernatural power to achieve particular results. Magic is based on the idea that there is a link between the supernatural and the natural world such that the natural world can be compelled to act in the desired way if the spell is performed correctly. Magicians direct supernatural forces toward a positive goal- to help individuals or the whole community. Magicians have clear ends in mind when they perform magic, and use a set of well-defined procedures to control and manipulate supernatural forces. For example, a Trobriand Island religious specialist will ensure a sunny day for a political event by repeating powerful sayings thought to affect the weather.

Explain the various theoretical approaches to the interpretation of myths, including myths as literal history, Freudian analysis, myth-as-charter, the interdependence of myth and ritual, and Lévi-Strauss's myth as explanation for societal contradiction.

Malinowski: emphasized that myth was a charter for how and what people should believe, act, and feel. A body of myths lays out ideals that guide the behavior of members of a culture. This approach requires that the Wogeo myth be examined in terms of Wogeo cultural facts. Malinowski would see the Wogeo myth as providing the justification and rational for men performing certain ritual and ceremonial roles from which women are excluded. Freud: A Freudian interpretation of the Wogeo myth would see the flutes as masculine objects, clearly phallic symbols. The myth signifies penis envy on the part of the women, and anxiety about castration on the part of the men. Myths are seen as reflecting the collective anxieties of a society, and giving cultural expression to these anxieties. Kluckhohn: stressed the interdependence of myth and ritual, with both fulfilling the same societal needs. Myths provide statements about the origins of rituals, as well as details of how they are to be performed. Both the telling of the myth and the performance of the ritual arouse the same emotional feelings and serve the psychological function of alleviating anxiety. There is a direct connection between the myth and the ritual in Wogeo. The initiation of boys when they learn how to play the flutes is directly connected to the mythic statement about a boy growing up only when he learns to play the flute. Lévi-Strauss: viewed myths as providing explanations for cultural contradictions that can't be resolved. The Wogeo myth emphasizes the separation of women from men. The myth attempts to resolve the contradiction between the ideal of keeping males and females apart and the need for them to come together to reproduce. Myths as literal history: views myths as literal portrayals of the history of a society; this theoretical approach was discredited; This approach would interpret the Wogeo myth as signifying that there was an earlier period of matriarchy, when women controlled those aspects of society that men now control

Market exchange

Market exchange is the transfer of goods and services based on price, supply, and demand. Every time we enter a store and pay for something, we engage in market exchange. Barter involves the trading of goods, not money, but it, too, is a form of market exchange because the number of items exchanged may also vary with supply and demand. Market exchange appears in human history when societies become larger and more complex.

Modernization

Modernization theory stated that underdevelopment was the result of the retention of traditional social and political institutions in independent states that prevented Western-style economic transformation. Rostow's version of modernization theory stated that all countries pass through the same stages of development, and that the ultimate stage of modernization, associated with urbanization and intensive consumer consumption, required the replacement of traditional values and institutions with Western-style technology, economic markets, and political systems. Underdeveloped states were believed to be stalled at one of the earlier critical stages of development and required external help to jump start their economies. This unilinear model of development was criticized for its Western bias and for its nonhistorical perspective that disregards the historical relationships between states before and after colonialism.

Mythology

Mythology refers to stories that reveal the religious knowledge of how things have come into being. The origins and activities of supernatural beings are depicted in myths.

Myth

Myths are stories set in the remote past that explain the origin of natural things and cultural practices. Myths are associated with the sacred. They are about extraordinary, superhuman heroes or gods. Ex: The people of Wogeo have a myth that tells how the flutes that represent the nibek spirits came to be. In the distant past, two female heroes made self-playing flutes. Then a boy stole the flutes and tried to blow them. The women told him that, because of his actions, the flutes would never play by themselves again, and since a male had stolen them, no female could ever look at the flutes. Thus, in order to become men the boys of Wogeo had to learn to blow the flutes. Ultimately, this myth is about the origins of culture and the tension inherent in male-female relations.

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)

NGOs are development organizations that are structurally independent of state institutions. Over several decades, NGOs have arisen in many countries, facilitating delivery of development, education, and health programs to local communities. NGO representatives are often members of the elite from the city, which means they are of a different social class than the villagers. NGOs introduce plans and proposals initiated from outside the community, reflecting international or state development priorities.

Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism refers to the contemporary revival of classic economic liberalism that places emphasis on privatization (deregulation of markets and trade, reducing gov's role in economy) and free enterprise (an economic system in which private business operates in competition and largely free of state control). It is most commonly associated with laissez-faire economics. In particular, neoliberalism is often characterized in terms of its belief in sustained economic growth as the means to achieve human progress, in free markets as the most-efficient allocation of resources, in minimal state intervention in economic and social affairs, and its commitment to the freedom of trade and capital. Example: In the US there is a growing trend towards decentralization and privatization of primary and secondary schools.

Office

Office is defined as a recognized political position.

Trickster

One of the most common folktale motifs is that of the trickster. Among many North American Indian societies, the trickster takes the form of a coyote, though among the Kwakiutl, the trickster is a raven. In European tales, the trickster is almost always a human male, while in Native American tales he is usually personified as an animal. The trickster seems to be a universal folklore figure that represents the incongruous combination of monster, loutish liar, braggart, creator and destroyer.Ex: Bugs Bunny and Roadrunner

Cultural environment

Our cultural environment consists of the norms we use to understand and explain our physical environment.

Political economy

Political organization and economics are intimately interwoven, and this interrelationship is referred to as political economy. In any society, political organization is intrinsically related to economic organization, because political power is based upon control of economic resources, whether those resources take the form of land, food, raw materials, labor, or capital. The various types of political organization are associated with different forms of distribution and production. For instance, small groups of people that subsist exclusively by hunting and gathering generally govern themselves by situational leadership, a form of political organization characterized by an absence of permanent authority and a flexible type of leadership in which various influential individuals assume power in specific situations. Situational leadership is found only among those peoples who provision themselves exclusively by hunting and gathering. Another way to see this relationship between economic and political structures is through comparison of the United States and the former Soviet Union. Both are state-level societies with permanent, centralized, bureaucratic governmental systems. Until recently, the primary difference between the two societies was an economic one—the U.S. provisioning itself through a type of capitalist market economy; the USSR provisioning itself through a type of communist economy. However, this fundamental difference in economics required an associated difference in politics, with differing ideologies, electoral systems, number of political parties, and so forth.

Politics

Politics refers to the competition for political positions, economic resources, and power. Politics concentrates on the manipulation of people and resources, the maneuvers intended to enhance power, the rise of factions that compete for power, and the development of political parties with differing points of view. Politics emphasizes opposing points of view and conflict, divergent rather than common goals.

Postcolonialism

Postcolonialism or postcolonial studies is the academic study of the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the effects of colonialism on former European colonies. The term postcolonialism can be used to describe the concurrent project to reclaim and rethink the history and agency of people subordinated under various forms of imperialism. Postcolonialism examines the social and political power relationships that sustain colonialism and neocolonialism, including the social, political, and cultural narratives surrounding the colonizer and the colonized.

Power

Power is the ability to command others to do certain things and get compliance from them. It enables an individual or group to influence others and control their actions. One can have power without having authority.

What is the difference between power and authority? Compare the power and authority of the Yanomamo headman, the Abelam Big Man, the Kwakiutl Chief, and the U.S. President.

Power is the ability to command others to do certain things and get compliance from them. It enables an individual or group to influence others and control their actions. When power becomes institutionalized, we say it has been transformed into authority. Authority gives a leader the right to exercise his power and enforce his decisions. In order to have authority, a leader must have power to compel people to obey him and he must hold office. Yanomamo headman: Leadership is informal in Yanomamo society. There is no single political leader but rather leadership is manifested intermittently. Thus, the role of headman is shared among the Yanomamo men. The Yanomamo headman does not have power, as he cannot command others to follow him and expect them to comply. He holds a recognized position or office, but since he has no power to compel people to obey him, he does not have authority. Leadership is based solely on influence, and different men exercise their influence in those areas in which they have special knowledge or ability. Thus, the Yanomamo headman lacks any formal power. Abelam Big Man: Abelam society is organized into a Big Man structure, in which the group is defined as the Big Man and his followers. The role of the Abelam Big Man is to organize his group's production of long yams for exchange and to serve as a node in the exchange system. The Abelam Big Man also acts as the ritual expert, since he is the only one who knows the magical spells that increase the production and quality of yams. His power stems from his direction of the ceremonial distribution of goods accumulated by his group and the decisions he makes in the redistribution of goods within his own group. The Abelam Big Man has no formal authority because his position is constantly challenged by other men. Instead, he must lead by influence, and his influence in his group relies on his ability to produce long yams, as they symbolize the status of the group. Kwakiutl Chief: The Kwakiutl chief has power, as his commands are always obeyed, and he holds a formally recognized political position. Thus, the Kwakiutl chief has real authority, which allows him to exercise power to enforce his decisions. The Kwakiutl chief's power stems from his responsibility for distributing wealth among the people through potlatches and his inherited supernatural abilities. His position is an ascribed status, as his validity as a leader relies on heredity. U.S. President: In the United States, the head of state is referred to as the President. Authority and power are vested in the presidential office, as demonstrated through the legal powers assigned to the executive branch. For example, the President exercises one of his or her executive powers when he or she decides to go to war to maintain the defense of the group. The president's legitimate right to execute his or her power is acknowledged by the citizens that constitute the U.S., as they are responsible for voting a candidate into the presidential office. While the president has considerable authority and power, his or her actual ability to get things done is largely dependent on the ability to influence--influence the public, congress, other world leaders, etc.

Production

Production is the process whereby a society uses factors of production (inputs), like land (natural resources), labor (human and animals), capital (man-made resources, tools), to produce the goods and services (output) necessary for supplying society as an ongoing entity. Production systems must designate ways to allocate resources and must also include technologies and a division of labor.

Discuss how race, as a discredited biological category and a cultural construct, might still saturate the production of ethnic identity and thereby rationalize and justify inclusion or exclusion within nation-states.

Race and racial classifications often are a basis for making distinctions between ethnic groups. Racial identity served and continues to serve as a rationalization for systems of inequality. Although there is no biological basis for racial classifications, race continues to have social consequences, including practices of discrimination and oppression. The Cherokee of Oklahoma illustrate the way identity can be socially and politically constructed...

Race

Race is defined as a system of classification of groups of people presumed to share biological characteristics. Racial classification systems are culturally constructed, based on culture-specific ideas about identity, although many people tend to think of race as a scientific concept based on biological systems of classification. The cultural construction of race is illustrated by the "one drop of blood" concept in the American racial classification system, which classifies anyone with any identifiable African American ancestry as black, not white. In comparison, in Brazil, color of complexion (color of a person's skin) plays a role in determining the class status of an individual; the lighter the complexion, the higher the class status. Many different races are recognized in Brazil based on phenotype, or appearance; as an individual's appearance changes, so does the assignment of his or her racial category. In America, a person's race is determined not by how he or she looks, but by his or her heritage. A person will be classified as black, for example, if one of his or her parents is classified that way no matter what the person looks like. In Brazil, on the other hand, people are classified into a series of tipos on the basis of how they look. The same couple may have children classified into three or four different tipos based on a number of physical markers such as skin color and nose shape.

Racism

Racism is defined as discrimination against an individual or group on the basis of race. Racism is expressed at both individual and institutional levels. Forces of racism work to separate the two categories of white and African American in the US.

Reciprocal exchange

Reciprocal exchange involves the transfer of goods and services between two people or groups based on role obligations. Birthday and holiday gift giving is an example of reciprocity. On these occasions we exchange goods not because we necessarily need or want them, but because we are expected to do so as part of our status and role. Another example is the Kwakiutl potlach, as well as the Trobriand Kula. Small, simply organized societies, such as the !Kung described earlier, base their exchange systems on reciprocity. Complex ones like ours, although largely organized around the market or redistribution, still manifest reciprocity between kin and close friends.

Redistribution

Redistribution refers to the transfer of goods and services between a central collecting source and a group of individuals. Like reciprocity, redistribution is based on role obligation. Taxes typify this sort of exchange in the United States. We must pay our taxes because we are citizens, not because we are buying something. We receive goods and services back—education, transportation, roads, defense—but not necessarily in proportion to the amount we contribute. Redistribution may be the predominant mode of exchange in socialist societies.

Refugees

Refugees are people who flee their country of origin because it is too dangerous for them to stay in their homeland. They share a fear of persecution.

Religion

Religion is the cultural knowledge of the supernatural that people use to cope with the ultimate problems of human existence. Religion refers to the cultural means by which humans interact with the supernatural or extra-human domains. Most religions possess ways to influence supernatural power or to communicate directly with spirits. Examples of ways religions influence supernatural power include prayers and sacrifices. Examples of ways religions communicate with spirits are spirit possession and divination. Religion fulfills certain universal functions, such as alleviating anxiety; explanatory functions, which answer such questions as why humans came to be on Earth and the meaning of life; and expiatory functions, in which...

Repatriation

Repatriation refers to the process of returning items of cultural or religious value to the original group from which these items came from. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act acts to transform Native American art objects that have become commodities back into objects that have religious and cultural significance. All museums are required to survey their collections and publish an inventory of human remains, funerary and sacred objects, and "cultural patrimony." After the inventories were published, tribes could then make claims to objects. The cultural artifacts repatriated were seen by the tribes as essential to the continuance of their traditions.

Revitalization movements

Revitalization movements are usually related to rapid change that renders a traditional way of life ineffective. Often, after significant cultural changes have taken place, people recognize that they are in the process of losing their own culture but have not been assimilated into the dominant culture. The uncertainty of their position pushes them to follow a religious innovator, who has a more concrete vision of a better future. Out of these conditions, religious cults are born, which have been termed nativistic movements or revitalization movements. These religious movements synthesize many traditional cultural elements with elements introduced from the dominant society. Wallace argued that revitalization movements go through five stages: 1. A Steady State. This is a normal state of society in which people, through their culture, are able to manage the chronic stresses of daily life. 2. Period of Increased Individual Stress. Individuals in a society experience new stress caused by such events as culture contact, defeat in war, political domination, or climatic change. 3. Period of Cultural Distortion. Stress levels continue to rise as normal stress-reducing techniques fail to work. Social organization begins to break down, causing additional stress, and various cultural elements become distorted and disjointed. 4. Period of Revitalization. This period is marked by its own stages. First, a prophet or leader comes forward with a new vision of the culture that requires change. Called a mazeway reformulation, this vision is intended to produce a more integrated, satisfying, and adaptive culture. This is followed by the communication of the revitalization plan and, if it proves attractive, the plan's organization for wider dissemination, its adoption by many people, its cultural transformation of the society, and its routinization in daily life. 5. A New Steady State. If no additional stresses occur, the society should attain a new steady state at the end of the process. Example: The Handsome Lake religion of the Seneca. By the end of the American Revolution, the Seneca had experienced the decimation of their population, the partial destruction of their villages, and the loss of many aspects of their culture. Handsome Lake, a tribal leader of the Seneca, had a series of visions, during which he was able to contact various Iroquois deities about the future of the Seneca. What he envisioned was a mixture of older Iroquois traditions and new ideas derived from the Quakers and other missionaries.

Rites of intensification

Rites of intensification are communal rituals that are celebrated either at various points in the yearly cycle or at times when the society is exposed to some kind of threat, during periods of conflict or natural disaster. They intensify social bonds. They serve to reiterate the social structure and reinforce the solidarity of the group. Ex: a rain dance during a drought; the celebration of the Day of the Dead; the celebration of Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving

Rites of passage

Rites of passage are communal rituals held to mark changes in status as individuals progress through the life cycle. Examples include naming baptisms, weddings, funerals, and seasonal feasts. All rites of passage include 3 stages: 1) Separation: marks the separation of the individual from the category or status previously occupied. 2) Transition: this is also referred to as the liminal period; the individual is "in-between" his or her old status and new status, and has not yet been reincorporated into society. 3) Reincorporation: in this last stage the individual is ceremonially reintegrated into society, but this time with the new status. This three-stage process is represented by means of the metaphor of death and rebirth. The individual in the former category "dies" and is "reborn" into the new category. Rites of passage generally reflect gender divisions and gender-based social roles of society. Ex: During engagement, man and woman have separate bachelor parties with gender specified activities. Examples: American wedding ritual; Christian baptism - At birth the child moves from being a neonate into a liminal state, not yet part of society. At the christening, the priest or minister dabs the child's forehead with water and names the child, thereby marking its entry into Christian society.

Sacrifice

Sacrifice is a ritual that involves giving something of value to supernatural beings or forces. Sacrificial offerings are seen as a way to approach the supernatural by bearing gifts. Sacrifices are made in order to gain supernatural support in areas including fighting wars, warding off sickness and misfortune, ensuring protection of crops, and providing fertility.

Shaman

Shamans are part-time religious specialists who directly control supernatural power, often to cure people or affect the course of life's events. The most powerful shamans could not only cure diseases, but could also cause illness in others. Shamans in some societies (like the Inuit) also intervened with the supernatural in attempting to control the forces of the environment. They may have personal relationships with spiritual beings or know powerful secret medicines and sayings. Shamans can travel to and have direct contact with the spirit world.

Sorcery

Sorcery is defined as the malevolent (evil) practice of magic. Sorcery uses magic to cause harm. Sorcery is learned, and not inherited.

Sovereignty

Sovereignty is defined as the ability of a group to determine their own laws and practices that will be recognized by other groups. Example: Native Americans have more frequently been in legal battles. They assert their hunting and fishing rights, or their rights to land promised to them in treaties, or the freedom to pursue their own religious practices, or their rights to tribal cultural objects now located in museums. These cases represent an affirmation of Native American sovereignty clashing with the sovereignty of the US.

Spirit possession

Spirit possession occurs when a supernatural being enters and controls the behavior of a human being. With the spirit in possession, others may talk directly with someone from the divine world.

What are subsistence strategies? What are the 5 types?

Strategies used by groups of people to exploit their environment for material necessities. Societies employ different strategies to meet their material needs, strategies that affect their complexity and internal organization as well as relationships to the natural environment and to other human groups. Hunting and gathering, horticulture, pastoralism, agriculture, and industrialism

Syncretism

Syncretism occurs when elements of other cultures are incorporated into an existing cultural practice. Religious institutions all respond to changing conditions and are influenced by other belief systems. Syncretism can lead to the creation of new forms of existent religions, like Mormonism from Christianity, or even entirely new religions like Scientology. Example: Various earlier pre-Christian beliefs, including belief in local spirits and spiritual healing, were incorporated into Christianity as it spread through Europe.

Technology

Technology is the cultural knowledge which enables people to exploit their environment. Technological advancements allow us to produce more output with same input.

Commodification of art

The art world has become a community of buyers and sellers as a consequence of the commodification of art and the development of a worldwide auction market. Art has become a commodity, purchased by the wealthy as an investment and to show their good taste. The commodification of art is characteristic of capitalism and free markets.

Discuss the ideological basis and the ramifications of "directed change" or "development" among indigenous populations. Explain the argument that underdevelopment and development are intrinsically related.

The ideology of "development" (directed cultural change) has its roots in theories of unilinear cultural evolution. Although tempered with notions of global philanthropy and a presumed desire for economic and political equality among nations, the idea of "development" still holds that the societies of the "First World" provide the highest standards of living, produce the greatest works of scholarship and art, and offer their citizens the greatest amounts of personal freedom. The difference between the ideology of development and that of unilinear cultural evolution involves mobility. Unilinear ideas of cultural evolution hold that certain societies are innately less evolved than others and will always be so. By contrast, the ideology of development holds that any society can, theoretically, develop and thereby enjoy all of the benefits of "First World" living. The problem with the idea of worldwide "development" lies in the finitude of global resources. When we consider that the "First World" enjoys its relatively lavish standards of living because it controls a majority of the world's economic resources, we must ask ourselves what would happen if those resources had to be shared with all the other countries that want to be "developed." Assuming that the planet's resources are finite, there would be no way to have a globe covered with "First World" countries. How is it, then, that the imbalance of power between the "First" and "Third World"—an imbalance intrinsic to a global capitalist economy—can be sustained and tolerated by those who have the least in the world? The ideology of "development" is critical to maintaining this imbalance. As anthropologist James Ferguson argues in The Anti-Politics Machine, by framing "development" as a problem of technology and health care—that is, that the "Third World" is underdeveloped because it does not have the technology and health care available in the "First World"—the ideology of "development" obscures the political and economic issues at the heart of global inequality. In other words, by focusing our attention on the symptoms of inequality—poor housing, the absence of electricity and fresh water, a lack of modern medicines, and so forth—the ideology of "development" prevents us from examining the causes of global inequality. It transforms the intrinsically political issue of global inequality into a problem of technology. Although presumably a world of equal and autonomous nation-states, the "developed" countries still control a majority of the world's resources. As Wallerstein's world-system theory points out, "developed" countries control, for the most part, the capital and thereby the profits reaped through capitalist relations throughout the world. The "underdeveloped" or "developing" countries provide the raw materials and labor from which those profits are extracted.

Cultural ecology

The study of the way people use their culture to adapt to particular environments, the effects people have on their natural surroundings, and the impact of the environment on the shape of culture, including its long-term evolution. Cultural ecology seeks to explain the origin of particular cultural features and patterns which characterize different areas.

Cultural identity

The term cultural identity has been employed as an umbrella construct to encompass related group identities such as nationality, race, ethnicity, age, sex and gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status, regional identity, and political views. Cultural identity refers to one's sense of belonging or affiliation with the larger culture. Cultural identity is composed of both individual identity and social identity. In today's pluralistic, multicultural world, the terms ethnic and ethnic identity are frequently used as alternatives to culture and cultural identity, as people tend to associate more with their ethnic identity than with their larger sense of cultural identity. Example: My cultural identity encompasses all the different cultures that I identify with, like female culture, middle class American culture, millennial culture, straight culture, southern culture, liberal political culture. These all influence my cultural identity. My ethnic identity is only concerned with my affiliation with the white ethnic group, so I would be considered to have a weak ethnic identity.

Diaspora

The term diaspora refers to a population that has spread from its original homeland to other countries, and which continues to maintain affiliation with its homeland. Some migrants maintain their original ethnic identity for centuries and today are known as diaspora populations. Examples: The 6th century exile of Jews from outside Israel to Babylon; Africans in the North Atlantic Slave Trade; The largest Indian diaspora population is in the US

Neocolonialism

The term neocolonialism was first used after World War II to refer to the continuing dependence of former colonies on foreign countries, but the term is now widely used to refer to a form of global power in which transnational corporations and global and multilateral institutions combine to perpetuate colonial forms of exploitation of developing countries—for instance, in Latin America, where direct foreign rule had ended in the early 19th century. Neocolonialism is the practice of using capitalism, globalization and cultural imperialism to influence a developing country instead of direct military control (imperialism) or indirect political control (hegemony). Neocolonialism enables capitalist powers (both nations and corporations) to dominate subject nations through the operations of international capitalism rather than by means of direct rule. The result of neocolonialism is that foreign capital is used for the exploitation rather than for the development of the less developed parts of the world. Investment, under neocolonialism, increases, rather than decreases, the gap between the rich and the poor countries of the world.

Supernatural

The term supernatural refers to things that are beyond the natural. Anthropologists usually recognize a belief in such things as goddesses, gods, spirits, ghosts, and mana to be signs of supernatural belief.

Tribe

The term tribe is a unit used to refer to groups with a common language and culture. The concept of the tribe was created by colonial governments to enable them to deal more efficiently with groups with a common culture and language and unfamiliar forms of leadership. The tensions between tribal identity (now conceptualized as ethnic identity) and national identity are continually confronted by indigenous groups. Many tribal groups have retained their identity through conscious efforts to preserve their traditions and customs and to reject changes that would lead to assimilation into a dominant culture. Indigenous groups use various ways to assert their cultural identity as different from the dominant society. The ways they separate themselves from the dominant society are known as boundary maintenance mechanisms.

Discuss how expressive forms involve creativity within particular conventionalized forms.

The various arts operate within a set of traditional constraints. Yet every artist adds his or her own individual interpretation to the final product. Anthropologists who study expressive culture have put a great deal of emphasis on the relationship between traditional genres (or forms) and individual creativity. This is one area in which the relationship between structure and practice is most evident. For example, the anthropologist Dell Hymes has shown how women and men, older narrators and younger narrators, may tell a myth in strikingly different ways.

Vision Quest

The vision quest is a ritual, in which a man, through starvation, deprivation, and sometimes even bodily mutilation, attempted to induce a trance in which a supernatural being would visit him and thenceforth become his guardian spirit and protector throughout life. Many North American Indian societies had the vision quest.

World system

The world system refers to the economic incorporation of different parts of the world into a system based on capitalism, not politics. The World System is transnational; it consists of companies and patterns of exchange that transcend national borders and may evade control by individual governments. For example, Japanese cars and motorcycles sold in the United States reflect the transnational world system. So do the tuna caught by American trawlers in the Atlantic and shipped overnight to Japan to make sushi. The world system affects local conditions by providing goods, stimulating production, and introducing ideas. As a result, local people can easily find themselves both motivated by and at the mercy of world markets. An example of this is American workers who have lost jobs to "outsourcing."

Understand Wallerstein's world-system theory and explain how different societies function within the world system.

The world system refers to the economic incorporation of different parts of the world into a system based on capitalism, not politics. The concept of the World System refers to the historic emergence of the economic interrelationship of most of the world in a single economic system, in which the concept of the division of labor, usually seen as operative in a single society, is projected onto the global capitalist economy. Wallerstein sees the system developing after the breakdown of feudalism and the rise of capitalism and entrepreneurship and the succeeding Industrial Revolution. During and after the Age of Exploration, Europeans vastly expanded their search for sources of raw materials and mineral resources, as well as for markets for their manufactured goods. These European countries formed the core of a world system, and the colonies and protectorates that they dominated formed the periphery. The world system operates according to capitalist market principles, with profits constantly reverting to the investors of capital, who are located mostly in the core. The World System is transnational; it consists of companies and patterns of exchange that transcend national borders and may evade control by individual governments. For example, Japanese cars and motorcycles sold in the United States reflect the transnational world system. So do the tuna caught by American trawlers in the Atlantic and shipped overnight to Japan to make sushi. The world system affects local conditions by providing goods, stimulating production, and introducing ideas. As a result, local people can easily find themselves both motivated by and at the mercy of world markets. An example of this is American workers who have lost jobs to "outsourcing."

Transcendent values

Transcendent values are values that override differences in a society and unify the group. In every society, individual values may conflict with the values of the larger group. Religion often provides a set of transcendent values that override differences and unify the group. An example is the ten commandments of Christianity.

Transmigration

Transmigration is the process by which populations migrate from their homelands to other parts of the world. Transmigration has lead to the concept of transnationalism, which refers to the process by which family members migrate from their homes to another country, such as the US, and continue to maintain close contact with those left behind, thus forming new kinds of families called transnational families. Other relatives may follow them in a pattern of chain migration. These family members now in the US maintain a kind of dual existence. They live and work in the US, but remain members of their families back home, sending money, owning property, and even voting.

Transnational

Transnational means across national borders. The World System is transnational; it consists of companies and patterns of exchange that transcend national borders and may evade control by individual governments. Just as companies can be transnational, so can immigrants, workers, and refugees.

Tribe

Tribes are more complex than bands. Subsistence is based on horticulture and/or pastoralism. Leadership can be informal or based on Big Man structure. They are often organized in terms of matrilineages or patrilineages. Lineage elders generally take positions of leadership. Tribes generally engage in reciprocal exchange, like the Trobriand Kula ring, but those based on Big Man Structure also engage in redistribution. Examples: Yanomamo, Abelam

Ultimate problems

Ultimate problems are problems that emerge from universal features of human life and include life's meaning, death, evil, and transcendent values that can be answered by religion. People everywhere wonder why they are alive, why they must die, and why evil strikes some individuals and not others.

Urban legend

Urban legends are stories about contemporary events claiming to be factual that circulate widely and with variation. Urban legends typically have three good reasons for their popularity: a suspenseful or humorous story line, an element of actual belief, and a warning or moral lesson that is either stated or implied. Similar to conspiracy theories. The mass media often play a key role in the spread of urban legends, which brings a further aura of truth to the story. Urban legends are a reflection of major concerns of individuals in the societies in which they circulate. Ex: 911 conspiracy theories, stories about organ theft by organized criminal groups engaging in the black market organ trade.

Ethnic identity

Various forms of art may be used to express ethnic identity, as illustrated by Toraja carving. The Toraja people in Indonesia have been marginalized due to their small numbers and because they are Christians in a predominantly Muslim country. The carving on the Toraja house, known as Tongkonan, was once a symbol of elite status, but now represents Toraja ethnic identity. Today Toraja carvings and motifs are used to express Toraja ethnic identity as a whole.

Explain the theories of religious and ritual behavior developed by Durkheim, Weber, Freud, Spiro, and Malinowski and apply them to specific situations.

Weber: argued that since life is made up of pain and suffering, humans developed religion to explain why they were out on Earth to suffer. St. Paul constantly asked God why he was afflicted with a "thorn in the flesh", without ever receiving and answer. Freud: proposed that religious institutions represented society's way of dealing with childish needs of dependency on the part of individuals. What would otherwise be a neurotic trait thereby finds expression in the form of all-powerful gods and deities that control an individual's destiny. Spiro: suggests 3 kinds of needs that religion fills. 1) The cognitive need: the need to understand, the need for explanations and meanings. 2) The substantive need to bring about specific goals, such as rain, good crops, and health, by carrying out religious acts. 3) The psychological need to reduce fear and anxiety in situations in which these are provoked. Durkheim: saw religion as the means by which society instills values and sentiments necessary for the promotion of social solidarity. Durkheim proposed that religion is society's way of "worshipping" itself—that is, of validating and perpetuating its own structure by generating the values and feelings that hold a society together. Durkheim also distinguished between the "profane" and the "sacred." The "profane" involves everyday existence, carrying out the mundane activities of life without attention to the sociocultural system of which those activities are a part. By contrast, the "sacred" refers to those special, nonordinary experiences, such as rituals, celebrations, or even vacations, in which we recognize—if only by contrast with the profane—the shared meanings of our cultures. For example, among Christians in Euro-American culture, Christmas serves as a "sacred" time. It is distinguished from "profane" (or everyday) time in that most people have time off from their jobs; cook special foods; spend more money than they usually do; give, receive, and even wrap gifts in a manner appropriate only to Christmas. Most importantly, people do not do this as isolated individuals. They do these things as members of a community who share a set of general ideas about the meanings and behaviors associated with Christmas. By participating in this communal holiday, we reinforce the shared nature of our cultural beliefs. Thus, according to Durkheim, it is by moving through such "sacred" and "profane" periods that we continually cultivate social solidarity.

Witchcraft

Witchcraft is defined as the reputed activity of people who inherit supernatural force and use it for evil purposes. Witchcraft is closely related to sorcery because both use supernatural force to cause evil. But many anthropologists use the term to designate envious individuals who are born with or acquire evil power and who knowingly or unknowingly project it to hurt others.

Worldview

Worldview refers to the way people characteristically perceive the universe. It usually contains a cosmology about the way things are and a mythology about how things have come to be. Worldview presents answers to the ultimate questions: life, death, evil, and conflicting values.