Anthropology Chapters 1-4

Time-space Compression

Rapid innovation of communication and transportation technologies that transforms the way people think about distance and time.

Increasing migration

Rapid movement of people across the world.

Digital Divide

Since there is a distribution of uneven wealth around the world, it has left 85 percent of the world's population without the digital revolution. Globalization and improvements are powerful technologies but affect different cultures in different ways. It is up to anthropologists to study and work with the challenge.

the idea that different languages create different ways of thinking

Summarize the main thesis of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Ethnocentrism

The belief that one's own culture or way of life is normal and natural; using one's own culture to evaluate and judge the practices and ideals of others.

the ways that language and cultural categories intersect.

The field of sociolinguistics studies A) the ways that language and cultural categories intersect. B) who determines the best language in society. C) how language changes over time. D) the best words to use in a given situation

all of the above

The forces of globalization have changed A) the communities that anthropologists study. B) the methods that anthropologists use to do research. C) how anthropologists communicate with their research participants. D) all of the above

cultural relativism

The framework that anthropologists use to challenge ethnocentrism is A) ethnography B) norms and values C) cultural relativism D) evolution

the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.

The idea that different languages create different ways of thinking is called A) the Chomskyan Hierarchy. B) the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. C) the Western Apache Worldview. D) paralanguage.

The increased international movement of Europeans during the late 19th century

The roots of anthropological fieldwork lie in: A) Franz Boas' dedication to "salvage anthropology" B) Margaret Mead's role in bringing anthropological knowledge to bear on public debates C) The increased international movement of Europeans during the late 19th century D) The need to provide objective, scientific accounts of isolated cultures

even our genes can be affected by the environment

The study of epigenetics tells us that A) even our genes can be affected by the environment B) there is a clear-cut line between biology and culture. C) men and women are different for hard-wired evolutionary reasons. D) culture is determined by biology.

kinescics

The study of the relationship between body movements and communication

uneven development

The unequal distribution of the benefits of globalization.

all members of society.

The variety of a language that gets called "standard" is typically spoken by A) all members of society. B) the most socially powerful group. C) women. D) people who have completed at least two years of college

Globalization

The worldwide intensification of interactions and increased movement of money, people, goods, and ideas within and across national borders.

Physical anthropology, Archaeology, Linguistic Anthropology, and Cultural anthropology.

What are the four interrelated subfields of anthropology?

Time-space compression, flexible accumulation, increasing migration, and uneven development

What are the key dimensions of globalization?

Culture, holistic approach, fieldwork, multiply theories and purposes of anthropology

What are the major characteristics of anthropology?

Culture is learned Culture is interrelated Culture is adaptive Culture is shared Culture is a symbol Culture is dynamic

What are the most important characteristics of culture?

in anthropology, hegemony is referred to as the rule through the power of persuasion. It is achieved when a dominant group has successfully convinced the people that their rule is legitimate, without undermining their privileged positions.

What do anthropologists mean by "hegemony?"

It's understanding a group's beliefs and practices within their own cultural context, without making judgments.

What do anthropologists mean by cultural relativism?

It means that we humans learn culture throughout our lives from the people and cultural institutions around us; known as enculturation, we continuously learn formally (i.e. school curriculum, higher ed) and unconsciously (i.e. friends, fam, media). When it comes to being taught, through established cultural institutions (i.e., schools, medical/legal systems, etc), they help promote the ideas/concepts central to the culture. In addition, it enforces and promotes "appropriate behavior" (rules, regulations, laws) and thinking.

What do anthropologists mean when they say "culture is learned and taught?"

Anthropologists turned to studying our closest living relatives, the great apes (chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans). All primates make use of relatively complex communication systems. While these communication systems do not rise to the level of human speech, they are more complex than what is found among many other animals. Some scholars even seeked out examinations of human anatomy and genetics to understand the human language.

What do the anthropologists believe in origins of human language?

it's the study of the full scope of human diversity, past and present, and the application of that knowledge to help people of different backgrounds better understand one another.

What is anthropology and anthropology's unique approach?

The anthropological commitment to look at the whole picture of human life— culture, biology, history, and language— across space and time.

What is holism and why is it important for anthropologists to be holistic?

The nature vs nurture debate centers on the influences of these (nature and nurture) in different cultural elements. Today, most academics—including anthropologists—recognize that both nature and nurture influences affect human beings and their culture.

What is the anthropological debate over nature and nurture about?

Language dialects represent another point of intersection between power and language. A dialect is defined as "nonstandard variation of a language". In order to have a dialect, you must first have a standard version of a language.

What is the difference between language and dialect?

Values are fundamental beliefs about what is important, what makes a good life, and what is true, right, and beautiful, and norms are ideas or rules about how people should behave in particular situations or toward certain other people.

What is the difference between values and norms?

Culture is a means to increase power, and power is the way to influence culture. Institutions that have the power to influence culture (large media conglomerates, universities, cinema producers, etc.) hold a significant degree of power in society. Anthropologists study power and distribution of resources within a culture, taking note of any instances of "stratification" (uneven distribution of resources and privileges— among participants that often persists over generations) and seeing how it affects the greater society and culture as a whole. Also, it can help better understand the disparage of participation and resources within a culture—the haves and the have nots—and why that would be the case.

What is the link between culture and power? Why is it important for anthropologists to study the power and distribution of resources in a culture?

Language use by different genders can also be extremely different and caught up in symbols of power. Gender refers to the cultural roles played by different sexes. There are cultural ideologies that frame sex in the binary category - masculine, feminine, and non-binary

What is the link between language and gender?

Symbols

anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture

Ethnographic Research

A primary research strategy in cultural anthropology typically involving living and interacting with a community of people over an extended period to better

Excellent listening skills

A successful ethnographer needs A) Expensive recording equipment B) Excellent listening skills C) A way to maintain strict social distance from the community D) Only a short amount of time to fully understand the local culture

the study of the full scope of human diversity.

Anthropology is A) the study of the full scope of human diversity. B) the study of ants. C) the study of human fossil remains. D) the study of cultural histories.

ethnocentrism.

Anthropology's approach to the study of human diversity helps us avoid the intellectual pitfalls of A) globalization. B) ethnography. C) ethnocentrism. D) fieldwork.

Flexible Accumulation

Flexible strategies companies use to determine how they can benefit more from outsourcing other parts of the world or developing new warehouses that offer cheaper labor, lower taxes, and few environmental regulations. By doing this, it allows companies to maximize their profits.

how anthropology allows us to see our own culture in a new light.

Horace Miner's description of the "exotic" body rituals of the "Nacirema" tribe illustrates: A) how anthropology allows us to see our own culture in a new light. B) the hygiene practices of an isolated tribe. C) the role of the "holy-mouth men" in Nacirema culture. D) how anthropology can be used to understand medicine and healing.

Early accounts of Encounters with others. There is a long history of Europeans encountering and describing people from other cultures. One of the oldest examples is the writings of Herodotus. Today, Herodotus is often described as the founder of modern history because of his writings on the history of his fellow Greeks

How did anthropological fieldwork develop?

The benefits anthropologist receive from the global approach is understanding the intensification of interactions within and across national borders. The global economy is always growing and changing causing new breakthroughs throughout the world.

How do anthropologists benefit from a global approach?

By using different techniques like polyvocality- direct quotes from the people who are studied, reflexivity- the anthropologists self-reflection or view on their study, so the reader can know the anthropologist's biases or strength, tone and style - the way the ethnography is written to target a specific audience, ethnographic authority - credits like quotes or sources that give credibility to the author, experiments on ethnographic writing - different ways ethnographic writing is portrayed

How do anthropologists write ethnography?

There are differences to be found in the way languages are used among classes. We give the name "standard" or "unaccented" to the variety spoken by the most socially powerful, most educated members of society. It is rare for a person of high status to make use of a recognized dialect. **The professor gives an example of President Bill Clinton, who was born in Arkansas and spoke with a Southern dialect. As his political career grew, he would set aside his Southern dialect, since it is perceived to be associated with less intelligence. When he would go back home, his dialect would shift back. The fact that President Clinton would switch back and forth between standard English and dialect, is representative of the power inherent in language.

How does language intersect with race and social class in the United States?

Languages have some impact on the way we think and our cultures. Culture clearly impacts our language use, particularly when cultural systems of power overlap with language use. Power and language go hand in hand.

How does power intersects with language and communication?

Culture is created over time, shaped by people and the institutions they establish in relationship to the environment around them. It is not fixed; it's invented, changed, contested, and negotiated. Nor is it bound. It moves and flows across regions and between people. Just as we have examined the relationship between culture and power, we can analyze the processes through which culture is created by considering the origins of consumer culture as part of twentieth-century capitalism.

How is culture created?

Globalization is changing anthropology by the way anthropologists conduct their studies and research strategies. While intensification of globalization is occurring daily throughout the world, anthropologists need to be able to reflect their studies with the transformations that affect communities. Communities are experiencing economic forces that are reshaping family, gender roles, ethnicity, sexual orientation, love, and work patterns. Which causes exposure to new possibilities that were previously unimaginable before.

How is globalization changing the discipline of anthropology and the ways anthropologists study human cultures?

the digital technologies, it has made communications simpler, even in some cases, radically changed lives as well. The change has catapulted by social media within the past ten years alone.

How is the digital age changing the way human beings communicate?

A and D

Human culture is A) taught through formal info B) genetically wired C) hardwired into our DNA D) learned informally E) A and D

civilized

In early evolutionary frameworks of cultural variation, anthropologists tended to describe Western cultures as A) savage B) barbarian C) civilized D) unilineal

Effects of globalization on language

diminishing language diversity and hastening language loss. Although those are negative effects, there can also be a positive turn around. With globalization increase, the interaction and communication between people around the world, there is an increasing impact on languages

Ethnographic authority

establishing one's authority/credibility over one's research of a specific subject matter, and diving into their research, fieldwork decisions, credentials, and other pertinent info. It also intends to show the reader the decision-making process and the steps taken to reach a certain conclusion.

Hastening language loss

the decreased amount of diversity in languages, there is also a rate of which some languages are lost forever. Losing a language causes a loss of worldwide views, if not a completely novel way of thinking. Some linguistic anthropologists believe half of the world's languages could be lost by the end of the twenty-first century.

multi-sited ethnographic research

the investigation and documentation of peoples and cultures embedded in the larger structures of a globalizing world, utilizing a range of methods in various locations of time and space

descriptive linguistics

the study of the sounds, symbols, and gestures of a language, and their combination into forms that communicate meaning.

Diminishes language diversity

w/ political power wielded by the Western World, languages have begun to supplant other languages around the world.

The link between language thought and culture is broken down into two debates by Noam Chomsky and the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Noam Chomsky argued that humans share similar language ability and, thus, ways of thinking. The language is essentially hardwired into the human brain. All human languages are ultimately (despite their surface differences) built on similar principles. If we can translate anything from one language to another, there must be an underlying similarity between languages. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis holds that different languages create different ways of thinking. It argues that languages effectively serve as a form of classification for the world around us. English generally considered to have three tenses: past, present, and future. But, Whorf found that Hopi (Native American language) only used two tenses: a combined tense used for both the past and present and a separate tense for the future. Whorf argued this fundamentally changes the way the Hopi think, arguing that the Hopi have a different conceptualization of time. Past and present reflect a lived reality. Language is central to our experiences as humans - it shapes the way we think, see the world, and live our lives. Take, for instance, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which mentioned Hopi's (Native American language) believed there are only two tenses. Which combines past and present into one and the other being future. With only having two tenses, the Native Americans had a different outlook on the conceptualization of time.

What is the link between language, thought, and culture? How does language shape our ways of thinking?

Do no Harm Obtain Informed Consent Ensure Anonymity

What moral and ethical concerns guide anthropologists in their research and writing?

Only humans

Which of the following animals is known to have language? A) chimpanzees B) border collies C) all great apes D) only humans

business anthropology

Which of the following is NOT one of the primary four fields of anthropology? A) linguistic anthropology B) archaeology C) physical anthropology D) business anthropology

Because human activities have changed the earth's atmosphere, anthropologists can make important contributions to studies of geology, chemistry, and meteorology by considering the effects of humans and their cultural systems.

Why do anthropologists study the natural environment?

It transforms the ways anthropologists conduct research and communicate their findings.

Why is it important for anthropologists to know about globalization and its processes?

language

a system of communication that uses symbols— such as words, sounds, and gestures— organized according to certain rules, to convey any kind of information.