ANTH 1101 final review
Film clip: The Meaning of Food: Food and Culture
"Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you who you are" - Jean Anthelme Brillat Savarin Makah whale debate Hawaiian taro, haloa naka ("older brother" to haloa - first man) - super nutritious, never rots, etc. Called "kalo" - represents god Kani. "Local food" = mix of Hawaiian food and food from around the world (mostly Asian countries)
READING: "Chinese Table Manners: You Are How You Eat"
-The anthropological literature on food habits reveals three modes of understanding: first mode assumes that food habits, usually taboos, fulfill a practical positive function in the adaptation of a population to its habitat; second assumes that food habits represent a symbolic order, generally reverberating sympathetically with other such orders in a given culture; third assumes that food habits serve as social markers with the expectation that rules of commensality will parallel rules applying to sex. -Rules of etiquette are subscribed to or not as a result of one's membership in a group and inculcation by group members, and as an affirmation or rejection of one's membership -Food habits communicate symbolic messages, and encode social events. The message of that code is about different degrees of hier archy, inclusion and exclusion, boundaries and transactions across boundaries. -Westerners exasperated with the use of chopsticks often feel their most intense frustration when trying to ac- complish this task, and are often reduced to picking up small bits of rice with the ends of their chopsticks and placing them in the mouth. Seeming to pick at one's food in this way is not good manners and marks one as an incompetent foreign devil, confirming in most Chinese minds all of their previous prejudices about guazlos
READING: "African Polygyny: Family Values and Contemporary Changes"
-divorce is so common in the US many anthropologists and sociologists say we actually practice serial monogamy -marriage has more to do with children and community than it does with sex -from the child's P.O.V.: better to have a dead-beat father and live in a single-parent household or blended families linked through plural marriage?: blended families are known to be particularly stressful for children-84% of the 185 cultures studied men were allowed to have more than one wife at a time, polygyny can be understood in the Islamic tradition as a community obligation toward widows and children -some women said they'd be pleased if their husband took another wife: companionship, shared housework, husband care, and child care. More traditionally oriented women without education (^&%) were more favrable toward polygyny than women with some formal education (54%) -most men turn out to be monogamous in Africa -shift from overt polygyny to covert or monogamy: due in part to the inflexible teachings and policy of the Christian mission churches
3 conditions leading to globalization and hunger (give examples)
-people lose their land through coercion then must do wage labor and are often paid less than they need to buy enough food (northeast Brazil sisal plantations, energy costs of sisal laborers are great compared to the wages) -commercialization of local food production erodes reciprocities and sustainable practices (cash crops are grown for European market, worked by migrant labor, decreased local food production, increased dependence on outside forces - dessert and beverage economies in Africa) -states emerge and takes people's products for labor (wet-rice cultivators in China required to produce for export, Great Wall built with a vast army of conscripted workers)
berdache
19th cent. Zuni third sex, means "two spirit," could be either male or female two-spirit, unique and special because they hold both spirits, no known body transformation (opted into at puberty), different in terms of temperament/dress/roles, would have special roles (grave diggers, healers)
western dualism of sexuality
19th century sexuality European dualist ideology: heterosexuality (normal), homosexual (abnormal or deviant), effects of colonialism - transmission of western values and concepts of gender and reduction of diversity in gender formation around the world
Triangular Trade
Africa exported slaves to Carribean, where raw materials exported to Europe, goods are manufactured in Europe and imported in Africa
READING: "Profile of an Anthropologist -- From Tikal to Tucson: Today's Garbage Is Tomorrow's Artifact"
America as a consumerist society, we lie about beer intake; garbage is a better way to understand today's society and understand why people buy certain products
READING: "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema"
Americans believe they are special and unique but when we take a step back we are exactly as "strange" other cultures are. Bathroom/medicine cabinet weirdness etc.
READING: "Our Babies, Ourselves"
Americans try to make their children independent; Japanese integrate their children into their culture and family (don't want them to be independent); babies recognize parents
Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande
Azande people trying to find logical way to explain coincidences, and why certain events happen to certain people at certain times, relates things to social and moral norms
Zande friction oracle
Azande peoples can visit an oracle when they are not sure about witchcraft or why things happen
FILM CLIP: Baka: People of the Forest
Baka people have a remarkably similar in modern society - have extensive knowledge of forest and immense ingenuity to survive in this environment
READING: "How Many Fathers are Best for a Child?"
Bari Indians in Venezuela believe that more than one man can contribute to coneption; two fathers = lower mortality
"Child Care in China"
Chinese children constantly praised when showing concern for others, competitive situations not as scary - about helping each other more than winning
traditional Chinese foot binding
Chinese women take painful measures to make their feet small because large feet were considered unattractive
history of cultural anthropology
Colonialism by Europeans sparked their interest in studying these cultures, tons of new cultures - most if not all thought of as savage or backwards because they weren't like the Europeans. Lots of armchair goin on, recording traveller's logs etc. Then Franz Boas aww yeah
Ebonics debate
Ebonics is a dialect, diverges from the English "standard" but has distinctive patterns of pronunciation and grammar. Lots of racism involved in previous debate, school wanted to be able to recognize ebonics so that it could be corrected and addressed, helped students speaking ebonics in corporate world, etc.
FILM: That 70s Show - "The Water Tower"
Eric now feels like a nat geo reporter looking objectively at his parents since they don't feel like his parents anymore
READING: "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?"
Ethnocentric Americans don't realize that Muslim women might want to wear their burkas -protects modesty etc
reciprocity
Exchange between social equals, who normally are related by kinship, marriage, or another close personal tie. 3 types, things can fall in between/not always in one category generalized: gives to another and expects nothing in return balanced: exchanges between people who are distantly related - giver expects something in return negative: exchanges in which someone attempts to get something for as little as possible, even using dishonesty
FILM: "Bathing Babies in Three Cultures"
FILM: "Bathing Babies in Three Cultures"
Iroquois kin system
Father and uncles called by the same term, as are the mother/aunts. Parallel cousins + cross cousins
Bureau of American Ethnology
Frank Cushing worked here - he helped expand knowledge of different cultures in America (reversing armchair)
FILM: Life and Debt
IMF and World Bank's globalization policies required Jamaica to enact major economic reforms but they weren't successful - left Jamaica in crippling debt; film blames IMF and WB
FILM: 30 Rock: "Jack Meets Dennis"
Jack judges Dennis based on his interests, hobbies, clothing, and mannerisms - considers him a lower class regardless of his economic position
Frank Cushing
Lived with Zuni people for 5 years so he could learn more about their culture, worked for BAE
Sex and Temperament in three primitive socieities
Margaret Mead argued that the categories of man and woman (male and female) are not naturally given - but imbued by our culture and socially produced
FILM: Ongka's Big Moka
Men compete in gift-giving ceremonies called "moka," which are a series of exchanges with the goal to put the other side in debt, requires lots of social networking, culminates in collection of many gift exchanges rather than a single big gift
FILM: The Office - "Diversity Day"
Michael assigns post-its to employees and tries to bring out stereotyping
FILM: The Office: "Back from Vacation"
Michael comes back from a vacation in Jamaica with a severe misunderstanding of the economic situation there
British "social anthropology"
More influenced by colonialism (no native American groups - ruled foreign people) Was previously politically driven (more they knew about groups they were ruling = easier to control)
Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act
NAGPRA - requires federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding to return Native American artifacts/items to lineal descendants and culturally affiliated tribes
characteristics of culture
Necessary, Integrated, Conservative/Always Changing, Learned, Normative, Shared, Multiple, Ideational, Embodied/Material, Tied to Power
international debt development projects (and NGOs)
Non-Governmental organizations (NGOs) create projects that can provide services and resources to citizens of poorer countries but rarely can do so under local leadership - don't usually bother to understand the complex culture
READING: "Suite for Ebony and Phonics"
Oakland school board recognized Ebonics as a language so as to more effectively teach English
FILM: Trekkies
Star Trek fans have created their own elective culture - has distinct set of values, practices, and customs that people/fans participate in
anthropology
Study of human diversity, cross between social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities
purity and pollution on Iron Chef
This Asian chef gets hella pissed when Bobby Flay stands on a cutting board at the end of the competition. To the Japanese the bottom of the feet are disgusting (equivalent to us sitting on cutting board) - they take off their shoes when they go inside, etc.
wealth distribution in U.S.
U.S. has the most unequal distribution of wealth of all industrialized nations - wealthiest 1% of Americans have more wealth than the poorest 95% combined
crossing the line (Shellback Ceremony)
US Navy at the Equator, pollywogs vs. shellbacks, inverted rules on what types of sexual behaviors are acceptable
READING: "Strange Country This: An Introduction to North American Gender"
Unlike contemporary terms like gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender, the term two-spirit represents people whose societies respectfully understand them as both male and female. Despite different adaptive strategies, political structures, and cultural lives, , alternative gender roles was one of the few widely shared features of Native American societies. Two-spirit people, or berdaches, are people who fulfill mixed gender roles and have been documented in over 150 North American tribes, typically specialized in the work of the opposite sex.
ethnoelimination
[privacy, masculinity, coolness] weird language used, peeing space, maximize peeing space, masculinity (body language at urinal - careful to not express interest in other men), privacy - always, we pretend there's privacy
sexuality as identity
a European concept (e.g. gay, lesbian, queer), many individuals don't perceive their sexual choices or behaviors as determinant of their identities - don't associate permanence with their behaviors
the mivumba debate
a Lugandan word referring to second-hand clothing imported from America and Europe - has both economic and cultural advantages/disadvantages, proposals to tax it to stimulate the Ugandan clothing industry met with resistance
World Bank
a UN agency created to assist developing nations with loans guaranteed by member states
settler colonies
a colony in which involves foreign families moving into a region - depopulating the previous inhabitants eventually
extractive colonies
a colony that use the colonized area for their natural resources or agricultural commodities
race
a cultural category and a biological function
elective culture (and elective identity politics for minorities)
a culture that is adopted by choice (widespread in America especially among whites that want to be part of a marked identity)
polygyny
a marriage system involving one man having multiple wives
polyandry
a marriage system involving one woman having multiple husbands
creole
a pidgin language that has been learned as a first language by children of pidgin-speakers (fully developed into its own language)
adoption
a response to cultural change involving adopting outsiders' culture, practices, and ideas as your own
resistance
a response to cultural change involving rejecting (overtly or covertly) outsiders' culture in favor of maintaining your own
bricolage/indigenization
a response to cultural change involving taking pieces of the outsiders' culture and integrating them into your own way of life
worldview
a sense of how the world works, members of the same society make use of shared assumptions about how the world is, mental illness seen as deviation from this view
Dickson Mounds
a site that archaeologists have excavated remains in order to study - testing for differences of population pre and post agricultural revolution
economy
a system of production, distribution, and consumption of resources
dialect
a variant of a language spoken in a certain geographical area (# of speakers or area can be any size, can have sub-dialects)
same-sex policing
a way of maintaining gender, marking ourselves (haircut, makeup, clothing), used in language (slurs incorporate gender - "bitch," "faggy")
mode of production
a way of organizing production - "set of social relations through which labor is deployed to wrest energy from nature by means of tools, skills, organizations, and knowledge" differences in modes of production may reflect differences in environment, target resources, or cultural traditions
READING: "Advertising and Global Culture"
advertising now a transnational culture, when you travel you see Western symbols and the common theme of consumption; advertising erases traditional culture (tv is key)
Hawaiian kin system
all relatives of the same generation and sex are called by same term - not strongly lineage-oriented. (Aunts, mother = same term)
craniometry
an attempt to try to explain differences in culture based on race and believed capacity of skulls (brain size) to be linked to intellect, packed skulls from around the world with sand and weigh the sand to determine which race had biggest brain size
sexuality
an enduring pattern of emotional romantic and/or sexual attractions to men, women, or both sexes, as well as an individual's sense of personal and social identity based on those attractions behaviors expressing them and membership in a community of others who share them
World Trade Organization (WTO)
an international body dealing with rules of trade between nations
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
an international organization established to provide temporary financial assistance to countries to help ease balance of payments adjustment - forces countries to compromise citizens' well being to repay debt
polygamy
any marriage system involving more one partner of one gender
cultural analysis
any way to analyze a particular culture - through observing certain patterns etc
READING: "Disease and Death at Dr. Dickson's Mounds"
archaeologists compared before and after hunter gathering society agriculture skeletal remains genetically from the same people (not new pop moving in) Health Indicators - bone lesions, infection, nutritional deficiencies, age at death, etc. post-agriculture pop had way more infection, arthritic conditions, traumatic bone lesions (more social tension/aggression at this time than before), skeletal growth & height (younger Mississippians a lot shorter/smaller than pre-ag. Mississippians), teeth and stress
Hijras of India
are religious figures, many engage in sex work to support themselves, paradoxical position (marginalized in certain contexts but revered in others) - not Koti (have surgery) or Xanith (no surgery or hormone pills)
READING: "Doing Gender, Doing Surgery"
are women fundamentally different from male colleagues? impossible to determine - clear they can't afford not to act differently; there is a different atmosphere when women are in charge. same sex policing is an effective way of maintaining gender categorie
READING: "Reburying the Dead"
argued that archaeologists should return Native American remains back to their original tribes
READING: "Official Statement on 'Race'" AAA
argues that the concept of "race" has no validity as a biological category; homogenizes widely varying individuals into limited categories, impedes research and understanding of the true nature of human biological variations
READING: "Race Without Color"
argues that the visible physical diversity we identify with race is not coterminous with other kinds of physical diversity; doesn't define separate races
Native American spirituality in the mainstream
artifacts, and experiences now sold by white people that have adopted Native American cultures
colonialism
attempt by one country to establish settlements and to impose its political, economic, and cultural principles in another territory
salvage ethnography
attempt to record as much about culture as possible in fear of it disappearing (collecting artifacts, interviews, etc.) - esp Native American culture becoming rapidly assimilated into American mainstream culture
linguistic nationalism
attempts by whole countries to proclaim their independence from outside influence or dominance by purging their language of foreign terms, or an effort to revive dying/lost languages
armchair anthropology
bad practice, oversimplifies connections in cultures, takes things out of context, misinterprets data and events/customs, creates narratives that don't fit all cultures -- tries to force cultures to fit into preconceived notions of how they're supposed to be/act (savages, etc.)
Barbados (history, colonialism, tourism)
became independent in 1961 after being a British colony; wealthier than other islands like Jamaica because it was a settler colony and produced sugarcane
ethnocentrism
belief that one's own culture = right way of doing things/universal way
cultural relativism
belief that we must understand cultural differences- natives know what their doing
religious belief and/vs. practice
beliefs include worldview and moral order, while practices include rituals, worship, and moral behavior
Max Weber
believed that social class is determined by "status" or "social prestige"
Pierre Bourdieu
believed that social class is determined by one's cultural/symbolic capital
Karl Marx
believed that social class is determined by ownership of the means of economic production (capitalists, proletariat, etc)
sex
biological difference - fundamental form of stratification
patrilineal
both males and females belong to their father's kin group but not their mothers
parallel cousins
called the same term as siblings, mother's sisters' children or father's brothers' children
marked category
categories that are not assumed, that have to be specified (in the US - nonwhite, female, homo- or bisexual, disabled, ESL)
unmarked category
category of position of power - the norm (in the US - white, male, heterosexual, able-bodied, English-speaking)
Behind the Smile
collection of interviews of people working in the Barbados tourism industry; shows intersectionality of race, class, colonialism, and globalization
READING: "You Are What You Eat"
compares the health food movement to a religion; describes the movement as the organization of a meaningful world view and the construction of a satisfying life"
rites of passage
consists of separation from larger group, liminality between states, and reincorporation into society
culture of fear
created by media/society (America has this), scared of failure, must have success
cultural reproduction
creating the next generation in terms of culture, (westerners holding babies less so they become less dependent, etc.)
culture vs. Culture
culture = something everyone has already, not something to aspire to. EVERYTHING about how you act/live your life. Culture = "high" culture - civilized etc.
FILM: "Bowling for Columbine"
culture of fear in america leads to our gun violence
myth of classlessness
culture that we shouldn't ask questions about the cultural system that produces economic and power stratifications
bilateral descent
descent is traced through either or both parents (present in few - but heavily populated societies), can be traced "down" or "up"
unilineal
descent is traced through parents and ancestors of only one sex (matrilineal or patrilineal)
FILM: Mirrors of the Heart: Race and Identity
describes how race and ethnicity influence self-image and social status; colonizing society is generally valued but sometimes is rejected by indigenous people
stratification
division of power and privilege
"Time, Culture, and Lateness"
do different cultures have a different perception of time/pace of life? measured how long it took people ot walk a block, buy a stamp, accuracy of clocks between banks, what do results tell us about culture (Japan highest accuracy/time/pace, Italy slowest, etc.) = formality of culture. style of cultural analysis
FILM: The House We Live In
documentary about how the government made rules in start 20th century regarding who to give mortgages to and created a panic over the monetary effects of racial diversity in the suburbs ("white flight"), and collapse of market when minorities tried to move into white neighborhoods
multiple modernities
each culture has some elements of western society, but manifest them in different ways (modernity isn't superior to tradition)
dessert and beverage economies
economies based on cash crops like tea/coffee/sugar for the dessert confectionaries of the Western world - leaves growers without enough land and resources to meet basic necessities (3rd world growers trapped in a cycle of using resources to grow non-profitable crops and using their profits to buy essential foods)
FILM: "American Tongues"
examined American English accents and dialects; people with thick accents went into lessons to learn how to speak
intersectionality
examining how cultural categories like race, class, sexuality, and gender interact on multiple levels to manifest themselves as inequality in society
the cultural and ecological impacts of overconsumption
excess value extracted can be consumed (less shortages) but uncompensated labor can result in unsustainable subsistence efforts
feminist anthropology
focused on the question of male dominance - universality, definition, and how to challenge it
FILM CLIP: The Saltmen of Tibet
follows clan of Tibetan salt harvesters across dangerous territory to lakes where salt is harvested; salt is then traded for foodstuffs to sustain the clan for the next year
human ecology
foodways (how people get their food) and how humans (in cultural groups) interact with their environment/surroundings
Franz Boas
founder of modern American anthropology, used salvage ethnography, looked at reasons that peoples/cultures differed outside of biology, worked in almost all fields of anthropology in his lifetime
gender norms
gender categories of a culture, the traits assigned to each sex, patterns of relationships between genders, varies cross culturally
interviewing
gets insider perspective, good to allow to retain anonymity (protects interviewee, keeps honest)
READING: "What's in a Name?"
girl trying to recover her African identity - goes to Africa to get in touch with her ancestry. Stresses importance of her full African name but Africans called her nickname too - it doesn't have any meaning to the people in Africa
READING: "Using Cultural Skills for Cooperative Advantage"
gives insight to cultural differences when major companies do business in Japan; do's and don'ts of business etiquette with Japanese businesses
fieldwork
going out into culture/immersing oneself into that culture in order to understand
globalization
greater interconnectedness of the world through new information, communication, and travel technologies, has several meanings (economic, political, and cultural aspects)
Hurricane Katrina
hard to separate out racism and classism because of intersectionality - victims often talked about in terms of economics, not in terms of how those economics have been influenced by social and historical forces
sign
has some sort of natural association with whatever it denotes (smoke = fire, etc.)
incest
having sexual relations with an individual who is culturally defined as related to you in a way which makes such sexual activity inappropriate
meritocracy
hierarchy in which one's social standing is determined by one's merit (rags to riches)
exoticization of other cultures
how "others" are being portrayed, how does that reflect our own values though?
human ecology
how humans extract food and other needed resources from their environment, how does this shape culture/how does culture shape this?
biological determinism
human ecology of sexual stratification
hunter-gatherers
hunting wild animals and gathering wild plants foods as a way of life. Small social groups (~20 people), mobile lifestyle, no farming or raising food animals, few possessions, no permanent settlements, share food (to not share = morally wrong), gender division of labor, few status differences (egalitarianism - no one can really own more than another), can live comfortably, absence of many illnesses, few in modern times.
educational space
idea of linear progress is very western, notion that we separate people by age, we like to have boxes to put people in (school is a bunch of boxes), versus a hut, tee-pee setting (very communal). the box social spaces are usually found in very socially stratified societies - we like to categorize and group people by age, purpose, success, etc.
cave man image of sexual stratification
idea of man the hunter, woman the gatherer - group relied on man to be main provider (of meat) so men must be dominant
anti-racism in anthropology
idea of race has no scientific merit, all cultures and races equal in value - euro culture not the pinnacle of human evolution, cultures need to be understood in their own context vs. how they fit on the evolutionary ladder
fictive kinship
identifying an unrelated individual as a member of the kin group (family friends?)
FILM: Killing us Softly III
image of ideal women in advertising - models getting increasingly thinner (have to be photoshopped to look bigger), affecting girl's perception of themselves, however - male models always shown to be fit and strong
nuclear family
immediate family you live with
cultural (symbolic) capital
includes knowledge, judgments of taste, and socially valued characteristics
economic capital
includes money, property, concrete value of things
sexual diversity
including sex between people of the same gender, exists and has existed everywhere at all times, ways of defining and controlling sexual diversity vary enormously across cultures, societies, and time periods
READING: "Ancient Genes and Modern Health"
investigating illness in westerners - nutritional factors and muscle differences; ancient people got nutrients from meat, veggies, fruit, nuts - we eat more calories/sodium/drugs/alcohol
comparative approach
involves comparing parallel cultural features between two or more cultures
particularist approach
involves extensive study of all the aspects of one particular group
agriculture
involves: domestication of plants, irrigation, permanent settlements, food storage. implications: population growth (more food produced), urbanization, craft specialization (time for other things that don't involve food gathering) -- development of elites, led to social stratification
Christianity and civilization
key to spreading civilization; lands were conquered in the name of religion to "save" the native population
affinal kinship
kin relations based on marriage (in-laws, broadly defined)
consanguinal kinship
kin relations based on shared blood (biological relatedness)
globalization and labor
labor laws have changed - reform laws restricted the work week, required benefits, etc
language and power
language as an identity/unique heritage, helps groups preserve boundaries and autonomy outside the dominant language for ethnic minorities/immigrant communities. states and other powerful institutions often pressure minority groups to learn dominant language and abandon their own
subjects, informants, consultants
language for people anthropologists study
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
language shapes our understanding of the world, not just a code for different ideas/things (we are influenced by our language)
globalization and hunger
large-scale hunger can occur when international terms of trade are unequal, leading more wealth to be extracted from some countries; debt to foreign countries can consume the majority of export earnings; drought can be the immediate cause of famine
gender
learned culturally - identified personally
READING: "Too Many Bananas, Not Enough Pineapples, and No Watermelon at All"
lessons learned by the count and his family = if food is given as a gift, you can't offer money for it. You can't deny food given as a gift (if you have too much - give it away). You can't demand/ask for gifts (people obliged to get it for you).
agricultural transition
lifestyle change from a hunter-gatherer/nomadic society to an agricultural one through the domestication of plants, irrigation, creation of permanent settlements, and food storage
neolocal
live somewhere new, not close to either family (majority of Americans)
Bajan
local term for natives of Barbados
FILM: White Shamans and Plastic Medicine Men
many white people have decided to adopt shamanism, while Native Americans find it ridiculous and demeaning to their cultural practices
exogamy
marrying outside some culturally-defined group
marrying up
marrying someone in a higher social or economic class than you
endogamy
marrying within some culturally-defined group
artifacts
material culture, any object that has been modified by humans
market principle
means of production (land, labor, natural resources, technology, and capital) - are bought and sold using money to maximize profit. their value is determined by law of supply and demand
benefits and abuses of colonization
missionaries (but not motherlands) often set up schools to educate natives; but colonial governments often forced labor with exceedingly poor working conditions and long hours
intergenerational
mobility compares parents' levels to that of their children
intragenerational
mobility plots career shifts within a person's lifetime
capitalist economy
money buys labor power, social gap between the people involved in the production process (bosses vs workers)
READING: "Of Kwanzaa, Cinco de Mayo, and Whispering"
multicultural education to avoid alienating based on race or ethnicity; can improve interethnic relations
ambilocal
near whichever family is convenient or has the most resources/work to share
gender and sex as continuums
not binaries (biological, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation)
magic and witchcraft
not quite a religion, involves manipulation of unseen forces, ritual practices - extremely varied throughout the world (hard to draw concrete conclusions)
Eskimo kin system
nuclear family differentiated from other kin, members are differentiated from one another (mother, brother, etc.); kin outside nuclear fam are differentiated by generation and sometimes by sex but not by paternal or maternal side (very similar to us)
social mobility
occurs whenever people move across social class boundaries or one occupational level to another (can be upwards or downwards)
matrilineal
only follows a female line, only daughters can pass on the family line to offspring
transhumant
only part of the group (usually men and boys) travel with the animals, while others stay in a settled village site and grow crops
overt racism
openly-stated or openly-practiced discrimination against some races in favor of others
redistribution
operates when goods, services, or their equivalent move from the local level to a center
culture of consumption
our major economic, social, and ideological systems are geared to nonsustainable levels of resource consumption and to continual ever-higher elevation of those levels on a per capital basis (selling values as well as products)
FILM: The Simpsons: "Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bangalore"
outsourced employees will put up with low wages/bad conditions, not as entitled as American workers, exploiting cheap labor markets
Iraq - The Mustergil of the Ma'dan Clan
patriarchal society, women may declare themselves social men after first menstruation, allowed most rights of men (except to marry of inherit property), widowed women may also declare themselves social men, still still have to pray as women
ethnicity
perceived cultural or physical similarities and differences
Redcap
person that carries tourists luggage through customs/outside to the curb; make their money with tips
intersexes
persons born with some combination of male and female sexual, chromosomal, or hormonal characteristics
emic
perspective held by people in a culture group
etic
perspective held by people outside a culture group
culture and personality approach
phsycological ideas into anthropology, applied an entire tempermant/personality to a culture as a whole (focus on child rearing practices) national character
READING: "The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female are Not Enough"
physical characteristics are much more diverse than we are led to believe (more than just male and female), sexual orientation and expression also much more diverse than binary [nerms, ferms, merms]
gender and language
polices gender, embodies/sustains attitudes to gender, boys and girls learn how to do different things with words (boys exert dominance, girls assert friendship/relationship)
FILM: The Office - Gay Witch Hunt
policing marked and unmarked categories, because its not obvious Michael assumed Oscar in unmarked category (homosexuality a "marked" category), in crowd/out crowd
3 aspects of empire
political (territories under control of ruling power), economic (ruling power decides what industries occur, control trading), and cultural (values and technologies are spread and considered to be superior)
constructivist position
position that holds that gender is something you do, not something you have or are
essentialist position
position that holds there are fundamental, real, differences between men and women
cross cousins
preferred as marriage partners, differentiated, mother's brothers' children or father's sisters' children.
enculturation
process in which older generation transmits culture to the younger generation (learning norms/rules/appropriate behaviors/identities)
acculturation
process in which two cultures meet/interact - can result in changes to culture, customs, and social institutions (food, clothing, language)
READING: "Barbados"
reading on the history of Barbados and tourism
marriage
relationship between one or more men (culturally defined) and one or more women (culturally defined), recognized by society as having a continuing claim to mutual sexual access -- some form of marriage is a human univeral
avunculocal
residence pattern - couple lives with wife's brother (children's uncle) - frequently found in matrilineal societies
matrilocal
residence pattern - couple lives with wife's matrilineal kin
patrilocal
residence pattern - refer to where a couple lives, live with husband's patrilineal kin
Beach boy
roams the beaches of Barbados to sell goods or services; some sleep with tourists
gender in advertising
shown in toy ads, blue and pink outfits a marketing scheme (babies need new clothes constantly, etc)
READING: "To Give Up Words"
silence itself is communication; silence is respectful; Western Apache are silent in response to social uncertainty/unpredictability
pidgin
simplified language, often a combo of town languages that is used for communication between those two linguistic groups
industrialism and environmental damage
simplifies ecosystems in agriculture: requires synthetic fertilizers and fossil fuel to manage successfully - modern agriculture operates with an energy deficit
participant-observation
simultaneously immersing yourself in that culture and also being around it enough to be able to participate in the culture (while observing)
Kennewick Man
skeletal remains of prehistoric man found - scientists and Native Americans fought for rights to remains, scientists and US gov't wanted to research them and Native Americans wanted to bury remains according to tribal traditions
ritual
social acts, signifying they accept a common social moral order
science and rationality: McHugh's sociological experiment on psychotherapy and meaning-making
sociologist conducted experiment with college students - were told they were participating in new form of psychotherapy but the therapist was delivering yes or no answers from another room, students would solve their own problems and draw their own conclusions from these
anthropology vs. sociology
sociology = quantitative (statistics, data, etc) anthropology = qualitative
READING: "Cell Phones, Sharing, and Social Status in African Society"
some African countries such as Nigeria think of cell phone minutes as cultural capital
explicit vs. implicit rules
some cultural rules made extremely clear, while some (majority) learned off reactions or unconscious, unspoken
third gender
some societies have institutionalized notions of it, acceptable/unacceptable, same-sex sexualities, ritualized same-sex marriage, ritualized cross dressing, and other forms of gender and sexual expression
symbol
sound, gesture, or object which a particular culture has arbitrarily associated with a particular meaning
potlatch
sponsors give away food, blankets, pieces of copper, or other items in return for prestige. accepting an invitation meant that you admit that you aren't doing well economically - but it would go the other way later. economic theory vs cultural ecology, cultural adaptation to alternating periods of local abundance and shortage.
FILM: Trobriand Cricket
sport was introduced by missionaries to substitute warfare but Trobriands use it as a form of exchange with ritual chants and warfare dress
one-drop rule
stigma that even the tiniest bit of "ethnic" blood categorizes you as non-white
circuit model
stresses a circuit of production, circulation, and consumption of media products (cycle of production, marketing, audience response, adjustment)
culture industry model
stresses power of media to define gender
Ifaluk gender norms
strong gendered division of labor (separate for most of the day) - separate gender spheres, women and men share virtually equal status and authority (women control the children/household/garden produce, men control fish/coconut trees) - both dependent on each other
Netsilik Eskimo gender norms
strong gendered division of labor, authority structures are flexible - elderly women often have much authority; each gender has authority in own spheres of activity. husband recognized as head of household but wife could influence him in any way.
READING: "Tricking and Tripping"
studied prostitutes, lives and choices, focused on aspects of prostitutes lives (role of pimps, types, aids, violence, escape, etc.). Drew patterns out of her data concerning each of these areas
ethnography
study of a certain culture based off fieldwork (more in-depth)
cultural anthropology
study of current cultures, mostly done through participating or observing other cultures
READING: "Sex, Money, and Success"
study of how Americans talk about success in terms of money while French talk about success in terms of sexual conquests
paleopathology
study of human disease
archaeology
study of past cultures (like cultural anthropology), focuses on material culture (can be
ethnology
study of people across many cultures
biological or physical anthropology
study of physical diversity among humans, evolution, primate relations, etc.
linguistic anthropology
study of structures of human languages (how they all differ or have similarities from each other universally), uses of language socially and culturally
READING: "Eating Christmas in the Kahalari"
studying food gathering habits, buys largest ox for xmas, locals keep his ego in check by telling him it's too old, purchase etc. Insider/outsider status.
pastoralism
symbiosis between humans and animals, animals get protection from predators or illness, help finding food, help reproducing. people get food, other products, ability to use marginal ecological areas
language
system for communication, in symbols, of any kind of information
systemic biases
tendency to favor some outcomes over others - in America: crime, justice, arrests, athletics, health care; racism present in enforcement
READING: "Shakespeare in the Bush"
testing the universality of the ideas in our standard (Shakespeare) - she realizes that they interpret it differently, they don't understand the ghost (think its' an omen), see Hamlet as being disrespectful even though she was supposed to have a "universal" story, just assuming that everyone should understand Hamlet - realizes she's ethnocentric
"personal kindred" pattern
the American kin pattern - only full siblings share the same set of kin vs unilineal in which you would know everyone in patrilineage
Rags to Riches
the belief that we live in a meritocracy where social mobility is the result of our hard work
colonial era
the era in which powerful western countries traveled and took power over foreign lands as colonies, transmitting western values and reducing diversity (is it over?)
oppression
the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner; related to racism
colonial ideology: "White Man's Burden"
the ideas, values, beliefs, perceptions, and understandings that are known to members of a society and that guide their behaviors - white man's burden is the rational given for spreading these to new people
kinship
the most basic principle in organizing individuals into roles/groups/relationships every culture chooses which kin relationships are important to recognize, no universal system
domestication
the process whereby humans modify, either intentionally or unintentionally, the genetic makeup of a plant or animal population to make them better suited to human use
FILM: BabaKieuria
the story of what would happen if indigenous peoples had discovered and colonized an English Australia
READING: "The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race"
the transition from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to agriculturalists is the reason we now get so sick and are unhealthy -The transition from food-foraging to farming (the Neolithic revolution) -With agriculture came the gross social and sexual inequality, the disease and despotism, that curse our existence -elite became better off, most people became worse off -progressivist prospective: primitive people improved when they adopted agriculture -Hunter-gatherers: had plenty of leisure time, ate a mix of wild plants and animals which provides more protein and a better balance of other nutrients
class inequality in the world
the world's 225 richest people own more than the combined wealth of the world's 2/5 billion poorest people, 4% of the income from the world's richest people would be enough to end malnutrition, stop and prevent disease, and provide everyone in the world with a safe home and running water
problems with black/white model of race
this model excludes other groups and minorities and multicultural identities
latent kinship
ties to kin outside of the immediate network that you usually keep in touch with, relations can be activated in certain circumstances
cultural borrowing
to embrace or appropriate aspects of a culture different than your own, to search for an identity
embrace
to take on some element of another culture without your relationship with members of that culture or their ownership of that cultural element
appropriate
to take or use some element of another culture in a way which in some sense hurts the people of that culture
Gender in toys and toy advertisements
toy ads show us gendered values and behaviors, ideas reflecting color and design (girls toys pink/domestic, boys toys dark/action oriented)
Setswana gender norms
traditionally very patriarchal, but farming is the women's job
marked/unmarked identities
unmarked people often go looking for an identity in their marked cultural background
covert racism
unstated, sometimes systemic, often unconscious, discrimination against some races in favor of others - "tokenism"
industrialism
use of non-human and non-animal energy to do work, labor (a commodity) replaces work (an activity) - you make money with your labor to buy the products of someone else's labor, few people involved in producing food or producing what they use
applied anthropology
using anthropology to solve real-world problems
postcolonialism
view of the contemporary world that holds that the colonial period is over, and we live in a new era with new dynamics of culture and power
neocolonialism
view of the contemporary world that holds that the world continues to be characterized by the same dynamics of culture and power as in the colonial period (except today more subtle forms of economic, political, and cultural domination)
magic
we aren't above "magic" in our culture, still superstitious, etc.
school as a site for enculturation
we learn cultural values in our schoolrooms, driving people away from failure and towards success (and our success if often pinned on someone elses failure), multi-level learning
READING: "A Cultural Approach to Male-Female Miscommunication"
we learn gender most intensely as children - then relearn it as adults; females listen and don't argue and males are dominant and not as good of listeners
tourism
wealthy people have always traveled, destinations are now forced to meet needs of tourists which causes disruptive cultural change/environmental damage, economies begin to depend on tourism, imbalance in way it functions
FILM: The Shackles of Tradition: Franz Boas
went to map + study arctic eskimo culture, participated in the culture there, realized their culture was based off more than their environment, began focusing on the PNW native American culture, salvaged material culture, filmed aspects of culture, began thinking of language as part of culture, tried to convince people that race does not affect your personality/potential as human being, believed no way to tell if any race = more intelligent because of biological differences
continuous care and contact model of parenting
westerners hold/breastfeed babies less, have high emphasis on playing vs other cultures that increase dependency but also put children into workforce much earlier than Western children
The Makah whaling debate
whales provided much to the community (blubber/oil etc. used). 1855 treaty Makah gave up 90% of their land for the right to continue whaling. Big part of culture centered around food, whale meat has large cultural significance. Criticized by animal rights groups for hunting, 1999 first time since 1920 that Makah undertook traditional whale hunt. US still hasn't decided to allow it ro not.
social sanctions
when we stray from societal norms, temporarily or habitually, we are often subject to negative influences from others which encourage us to behave more "normally"
FILM: Airplane - "Jive Clip"
white lady speaks jive; own dialect
READING: "Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack"
white people do not notice that they are at more of an advantage than their black counterparts
nomadic
whole group of pastoral people travels with animals on their seasonal pattern, must get other food by trade
READING: "When Brothers Share a Wife"
why is this behavior functional for the rest of the group? economically advantageous, need to preserve the land in the family, keep the brothers' land together as one parcel
FILM: Small Happiness
women seen as less desirable children because they get married off, marriages about men having fun, patrilocal, patriarchy, revolution of 1949 helped women in workforce (could have say in choosing husbands, could divorce, could work)
FILM: People Like Us
you can learn to be apart of another class but studying small aspects of it; smashing your peas
FILM: Becoming a Woman in Okrika
young girls believed to take river gods as lovers, separated from society and put into "fattening houses" to prepare for motherhood, then participate in a race away from the river and emerge with status as women