ANTH 2 (Key Terms and Readings)

Band:

- A band is the smallest unit of political organization, consisting of only a few families and no formal leadership positions.

Ranked:

- Chiefdoms are ranked societies; there are substantial differences in the wealth and social status of individuals based on how closely related they are to the chief. - In ranked societies, there are a limited number of positions of power or status, and only a few can occupy them.

is social class universal?

- In forager societies, the basic ingredients for social class do not exist. Foragers such as the !Kung, Inuit, and aboriginal Australians, are egalitarian societies in which there are few differences between members in wealth, status, and power. - Highly skilled and less skilled hunters do not belong to different strata in the way that the captains of industry do from you and me

Codified law

- Tribal societies generally lack these systems - formal legal systems in which damages, crimes, remedies, and punishments are specified. - Only state-level political systems can determine, usually by writing formal laws, which behaviors are permissible and which are not - In tribes, there are no systems of law enforcement whereby an agency such as the police, the sheriff, or an army can enforce laws enacted by an appropriate authority

Big man:

- a form of temporary or situational leadership; influence results from acquiring followers - ex: big man from New Guinea

Third gender:

- a gender identity that exists in non-binary gender systems offering one or more gender roles separate from male or female. - A well-known example of a non-binary gender system is found among the Hijra in India. Often called a third gender, these individuals are usually biologically male but adopt female clothing, gestures, and names; eschew sexual desire and sexual activity; and go through religious rituals that give them certain divine powers, including blessing or cursing couples' fertility and performing at weddings and births - Hijra may undergo voluntary surgical removal of genitals through a nirvanor rebirth operation. Some hijra are males born with ambiguous external genitals, such as a particularly small penis or testicles that did not fully descend

Clan:

- a group of people who have a general notion of common descent that is not attached to a specific biological ancestor. - Some clans trace their common ancestry to a common mythological ancestor. Because clan membership is so important to identity and to social expectations in Navajo culture, when people meet they exchange clan information first to find out how they stand in relationship to each other.

Proletarianization:

- a process through which farmers are removed from the land and forced to take wage labor employment. - Ex: One example is landed gentry in eighteenth century England who found that sheepherding was more profitable than tribute from peasants and removed the peasants from the land.62 A similar process occurred when Guatemala's liberal president privatized the land of Mayan peasants that, until 1877, had been held communally

Hypodescent:

- a racial classification system that assigns a person with mixed racial heritage to the racial category that is considered least privileged. - ex: Consider President Barack Obama. Obama is of biracial heritage; his mother was "white" of Euro-American descent and his father was a "black" man from Kenya. The media often refer to Obama simply as "black" or "African American," such as when he is referred to as the nation's "first black President," and never refer to him as "white."

Animism:

- a religious system organized around a belief that plants, animals, inanimate objects, or natural phenomena have a spiritual or supernatural element - The idea of mana is one example. The word itself comes from Oceania and may originally have meant "powerful wind," "lightning" or "storm." Today, it still refers to power, but in a more general sense. - Another well-known example of animism in popular culture is "the Force" depicted in the George Lucas Star Wars films. The Force is depicted as flowing through everything and is used by Luke Skywalker as a source of potency and insight when he destroys the Death Star.

Pigmentocracy:

- a society characterized by strong correlation between a person's skin color and his or her social class - one segment of Japan's population known as the burakumin (formerly called the eta, a word meaning "pure filth") vividly illustrates the arbitrary na- ture of racial categories - Though physically and genetically indistinguishable from other Japa- nese people, the burakumin are a socially stigma- tized and outcast group. They are descendants of people who worked dirty, low-prestige jobs that involved handling dead and slaughtered animals

Heteronormativity:

- a term coined by French philosopher Michel Foucault to refer to the often-un- noticed system of rights and privileges that accompany normative sexual choices and family formation. - what many people in the United States consider "normal," such as the partnership of one man and one woman in a sexu- ally exclusive relationship legitimized by the state and federal government and often sanctioned by a religious institution - For example, a "biologically female" woman attracted to a "biologically male" man who pursued that attraction and formed a relationship with that man would be following a heteronormative pattern in the United States. If she married him, she would be continuing to follow societal expectations related to gender and sexuality and would be agreeing to state involvement in her love life as she formalizes her relationship.

Exogamy:

- a term describing expectations that individuals must marry outside a particular group - Many cultures require that individuals marry only outside their own kinship groups, for instance. - In the United States laws prevent marriage between close relatives such as first cousins.

Endogamy:

- a term describing expectations that individuals must marry within a particular group. - People are sometimes expected to marry within religious communities, to marry someone who is ethnically or racially similar or who comes from a similar economic or educational background.

Cargo cult:

- a term sometimes used to describe rituals that seek to attract material prosperity. - The term is generally not preferred by anthropologists. - ex: One notable example is a ritual that developed on the island of Tanna in the South Pacific. During World War II, many islands in the South Pacific were used by the U.S. military as temporary bases. Tanna was one of these locations and this formerly isolated community experienced an extremely rapid transforma- tion as the U.S. military introduced modern conveniences such as electricity and automobiles. - When the war ended and the U.S. military departed, the residents of Tanna experienced a kind of trauma as the material goods they had enjoyed disappeared and the John Frum ritual began. - Each year on February fifteenth, many of the island's residents construct copies of U.S. airplanes, runways, or towers and march in military formation with replicas of military rifles and American blue jeans. The ritual is intended to attract John Frum, and the material wealth he controls, back to the island

Domestic group

- a term that can be used to describe a group of people who live together even if members do not consider themselves to be family - another term that can be used to describe a household. - Domestic groups can describe any group of people who reside together and share activities pertaining to domestic life including but not limited to childcare, elder care, cooking and economic support, even if they might not describe themselves as "family."

Biological determinism:

- a theory that biological differences between males and females leads to fun- damentally different capacities, preferences, and gendered behaviors. - This scientifically unsupported view suggests that gender roles are rooted in biology, not culture. - . According to this theory, males and females were supposedly born fundamentally different reproductively and in other major capacities and preferences and were "naturally" (biologically) sexually attracted to each other, although women's sexual "drive" was not very well developed relative to men's and was repro- ductively oriented.

Cosmology:

- an explanation for the origin or history of the world - Religious cosmologies provide "big picture" explanations for how human life was created and provide a perspective on the forces or powers at work in the world

Revitalization rituals:

- attempts to resolve serious problems, such as war, famine or poverty through a spiritual or supernatural intervention. - also often follow periods of crisis in a community, are ambitious attempts to resolve serious problems, such as war, famine, or poverty through a spiritual or supernatural intervention.

Patriarchy:

- describes a society with a male-dominated political and authority structure and an ideol- ogy that privileges males over females in domestic and public spheres - The rise of stratified agriculture-intensive centralized "states" has tended to produce transforma- tions in gender relations and gender ideologies that some have called patriarchy, a male-dominated political and authority structure and an ideology that privileges males over females overall and in every strata of society.

Supernatural

- describes entities or forces not governed by natural laws. - A second characteristic of religion is a belief in the supernatural, a realm beyond direct hu- man experience. - This belief could include a God or gods, but this is not a requirement.

Cline:

- differences in the traits that occur in populations across a geographical area. - In a cline, a trait may be more common in one geographical area than another, but the variation is gradual and con- tinuous, with no sharp breaks. - A prominent exam- ple of clinal variation among hu- mans is skin color. Think of it this way: Do all "white" persons who you know actually share the same skin complexion? Likewise, do all "black" persons who you know share an identical skin complexion? - The answer, obviously, is no, since human skin color does not occur in just 3, 5, or even 50 shades. The reality is that human skin color, as a continuous trait, exists as a spectrum from very light to very dark with every possible hue, shade, and tone in between.

Polygamous

- families based on plural marriages in which there are multiple wives or, in rarer cases, multiple husbands. - These families may live in nuclear or extended family households and they may or may not be close to each other spatially

Household:

- family members who reside together - A household may include larger kinship groups who think of themselves as separate but related families. - Households may also include non-family or kin members, or could even consist exclusively of non-related people who think of themselves as family.

Ethnogenesis

- gradual emergence of new ethnicities in response to changing social circumstances. - For example, people whose ancestors came from what we know as Ireland may identify themselves as Irish Americans and generations of their ancestors as Irish, but at one time, people living in that part of the world identified themselves as Celtic

Ideologies

- ideas designed to reinforce the right of powerholders to rule - Ideologies can manifest in philosophical forms, such as the divine right of kings in pre-industrial Europe, karma and the caste system in India, consent of the governed in the United States, and the metaphorical family in Imperial China. - Ex: We might watch the Super Bowl or follow the latest antics of the Kardashians, oblivious to the notion that both are diversions from the reality of power in this society

Bilateral descent

- kinship (family) systems that recognize both the mother's and the father's "sides" of the family. - (commonly used in the United States) recognizes both the mother's and the father's "sides" of the family - is another way of creating kinship. Bilateral descent means that families are defined by descent from both the father and the mother's sides of the family. - In bilateral descent, which is common in the United States, children recognize both their mother's and father's family members as relatives.

Matrilineal:

- kinship (family) systems that recognize only relatives through a line of female ancestors. - defines membership in the kinship group through the maternal line of relationships between mothers and their children.

Chiefdom:

- large political units in which the chief, who usually is determined by heredity, holds a formal position of power

Multiculturalism:

- maintenance of multiple cultural traditions in a single society - takes a different view of assimilation, arguing that ethnic and cultural diversity is a positive quality that enriches a society and encouraging respect for cultural differences. - The basic belief behind multiculturalism is that group differences, in and of themselves, do not spark tension, and society should promote tolerance for differences rather than urging members of immigrant, ethnic, and cultural minority groups to shed their customs and identities

Bridewealth:

- payments made to the bride's family by the groom's family before marriage. - Bridewealth is common in pastoralist societies in which people make their living by raising domesticated animals. - The Masaai are example of one such group. A cattle-herd- ing culture located in Kenya and Tanzania, the Maasai pay bridewealth based on the desirability of the woman. Culturally defined attributes such as her age, beauty, virginity, and her ability to work contribute to a woman's value. The economic value placed on women does not mean that women in such societies necessarily have much freedom, but it does sometimes give them some leverage in their new domestic situations. In rare cases, there might be simultaneous exchanges of dowry and bride- wealth.

Dowry:

- payments made to the groom's family by the bride's family before marriage - In more recent times, dowries have become extravagant, including things like refrigerators, cars, and houses. - A dowry can also represent the higher status of the groom's family and its ability to demand a pay- ment for taking on the economic responsibility of a young wife. - Historically, dowry was most common in agricultural societies

Ethnic group:

- people in a society who claim a distinct identity for themselves based on shared cultural characteristics and ancestry. - claims a distinct identity based on cultural characteristics and a shared ancestry that are believed to give its members a unique sense of peoplehood or heritage. - The cultural characteristics used to define ethnic groups vary; they include specific languages spoken, religions practiced, and distinct patterns of dress, diet, customs, holidays, and other markers of distinction

Magic

- practices intended to bring supernatural forces under one's personal control. - In his book A General Theory of Magic (1902), Marcel Mauss suggested that religion and magic were two opposite poles on a spectrum of spiritual beliefs. - Magic was at one end of the spectrum; it was private, secret, and individual. - Religion was at the opposite end of the spectrum; it was public and oriented toward bringing the community together

Assimilation:

- pressure placed on minority groups to adopt the customs and traditions of the dominant culture. - encourages and may even demand that members of ethnic and immigrant minority groups abandon their native customs, traditions, languages, and identities as quickly as possible and adopt those of mainstream society—"When in Rome, do as the Romans do."

Biologic sex

- refers to male and female identity based on internal and external sex organs and chromosomes. - While male and female are the most common biologic sexes, a percentage of the human population is intersex with ambiguous or mixed biological sex characteristics

Global South

- refers to the poorest countries of the world. - The definition includes countries that are sometimes called "Third World" or "Least Developed Economies." - many of these efforts(those made by the US) fall short of their intended outcome—and typically overlook the complexities of labor situations in the - Global South where families often rely upon the labor of their children to make ends meet—such examples nonetheless underscore the connections people in one location now feel with others (who they will likely never meet) through the commodity chains that link them.

Global North:

- refers to the wealthier countries of the world. - The mediascape has made people in the Global North increasingly aware of the social injustices happening in other parts of the world. - The definition includes countries that are sometimes called "First World" or "Highly Developed Economies."

Descent groups:

- relationships that provide members with a sense of identity and social support based on ties of shared ancestry - Kinship groups may also control economic resources and dictate decisions about where people can live, who they can marry, and what happens to their property after death.

Stratified:

- societies in which there are large differences in the wealth, status, and power of individuals based on unequal access to resources and positions of power. - State societies are stratified. - Socio-economic classes, for instance, are forms of stratification in many state societies

Ranked:

- societies in which there are substantial differences in the wealth and social status of individuals based on how closely related they are to the chief - there are a limited number of positions of power or status, and only a few can occupy them. - Chiefdoms are ranked societies

Egalitarian:

- societies in which there is no great difference in status or power between individuals and there are as many valued status positions in the societies as there are persons able to fill them. - Band societies and tribal societies generally are considered egalitarian - Foragers such as the !Kung, Inuit, and aboriginal Australians, are egalitarian societies in which there are few differences between members in wealth, status, and power. - Egalitarian societies also lack a government or centralized leadership. Their leaders, known as headmen or big men, emerge by consensus of the group

Glocalization

- the adaptation of global ideas into locally palatable forms - For example, McDonald's offers vastly different menu items in different countries. While a Big Mac may be the American favorite, when in India you might try a McAloo TikkiTM (a breadcrumb-coated potato and pea patty), in Hong Kong mixed veggies and egg mini twisty pasta in a chicken broth for breakfast, in Thailand corn pies or pineapple pies, or a Steak Mince 'N' Cheese pie in New Zealand

Syncretism:

- the combination of different beliefs, even those that are seemingly contradictory, into a new, harmonious whole. - Though syncretism arises for a variety of reasons, in many cases it is as a response to globalization - we use the example of Candomblé as a way of demonstrating that syncretism is a form of agency used by people living under oppression - Syncretism serves as a response to globalization insofar as it mediates overlapping frameworks. It would be unnecessary if people lived in a world where boundaries were clearly defined with no ideological exchanges taking place across those boundaries - Syncretism allowed the slaves and their descendants, who continue the tradition today, to create a façade of compliance with mandated worship within the Catholic tradition, while still continuing to pay homage to their own beliefs—and thus perpetuate their own ethnic identity—behind closed doors

Ethnicity:

- the degree to which a person identifies with and feels an attachment to a particular ethnic group. - As a component of a person's identity, ethnicity is a fluid, complex phe- nomenon that is highly variable - Numerous psychological, social, and familial factors play a role in ethnicity, and ethnic identity is most accurately understood as a range or continuum populated by people at every point. - One's sense of ethnicity can also fluctuate across time.

Habitus

- the dispositions, attitudes, or preferences that are the learned basis for personal "taste" and lifestyles. - For example, children who have been raised in upper-class homes are able to more seamlessly integrate into elite boarding schools than classmates on scholarships who might find norms of dining, dress, and overall comportment to be unfamiliar. - While a Coca-Cola may seem commonplace to the average college student in the U.S., it is considered a luxury good in other parts of the world

Social classes:

- the division of society into groups based on wealth and status - In a complex society, it may seem that social classes—differences in wealth and status—are, like death and taxes, inevitable: that one is born into wealth, poverty, or somewhere in between and has no say in the matter, at least at the start of life, and that social class is an involuntary position in society.

Castes:

- the division of society into hierarchical levels; one's position is determined by birth and remains fixed for life

Circumscription

- the enclosure of an area by a geographic feature such as mountain ranges or desert or by the boundaries of a state. - can arise when a region is hemmed in by a geographic feature such as mountain ranges or desert and when migrants would have to change their subsistence strategies, perhaps having to move from agri- culture back to foraging, herding, or horticulture or to adapt to an urban industrialized environment - The Inca Empire did not colonize on a massive scale beyond northern Chile to the south or into the Amazon because indigenous people there could simply pick up and move elsewhere. Still, the ma- jority of the Inca population did not have that option. - A group of people who are dissatisfied with conditions in their home region has a motive to move elsewhere—unless there is nowhere else to go and they are circumscribed.

Religion:

- the extension of human society and culture to include the supernatural. - can be defined as "the means by which human society and culture is extended to include the nonhuman." - This definition is deliberately broad and can be used to encompass many different kinds of belief systems

Reincarnation:

- the idea that a living being can begin another life in a new body after death. - In Buddhism, the form of a human's reincarnation depends on the quality of the karma developed during life. - Rebirth in a human form is considered good fortune because humans have the ability to control their own thoughts and behaviors.

legitimacy:

- the perception that an individual has a valid right to leadership - Legitimacy is particularly applicable to complex societies that require centralized decision-making. - Historically, the right to rule has been based on various principles. In agricultural states such as ancient Mesopotamia, the Aztec, and the Inca, justification for the rule of particular individuals was based on hereditary succession and typically granted to the eldest son of the ruler. - Incan emperors derived their right to rule from the Sun God and Aztec rulers from Huitzilopochtli (Hummingbird-to-the-Left). - European monarchs invoked a divine right to rule that was reinforced by the Church of England in Britain and by the Roman Catholic Church in other countries prior to the Reformation

Reified:

- the process by which an inaccurate concept or idea is accepted as "truth." - Reification refers to the process in which an inaccurate concept or idea is so heavily promoted and circulated among people that it begins to take on a life of its own. - Over centuries, the notion of biological human races became engrained—unquestioned, accepted, and regarded as a concrete "truth."

Racial formation:

- the process of defining and redefining racial categories in a society -

Gender:

- the set of culturally and historically invented beliefs and expectations about gender that one learns and performs. - Gender is an "identity" one can choose in some societies, but there is pressure in all societies to conform to expected gender roles and identities. - Gender is a set of culturally invented expectations and therefore constitutes a role one assumes, learns, and performs, more or less consciously. - It is an "identity" one can in theory choose, at least in some societies, although there is tremendous pressure, as in the United States, to conform to the gender role and identity linked to your biologic sex

Peasants:

-residents of a state who earn a living through farming. - a term derived from the French paysan, which means "countryman."

Transgender:

a category for people who transition from one sex to another, either male-to-female or female-to-male

Rite of passage:

a ceremony designed to transition individuals between life stages.

Socially constructed:

a concept developed by society that is maintained over time through social interactions that make the idea seem "real."

Cisgender

a term used to describe those who identify with the sex and gender they were assigned at birth.

Race:

an attempt to categorize humans based on observed physical differences

Nation:

an ethnic population

four levels of socio-cultural integration:

band, tribe, chiefdom, and state

Binary model of gender

cultural definitions of gender that include only two identities--male and female.

Each type of political integration can be further categorized as

egalitarian, ranked, or stratified

lineage

individuals who can trace or demonstrate their descent through a line of males or females back to a founding ancestor.

Patrilineal:

kinship (family) systems that recognize only relatives through a line of male ancestors.

Acculturation

loss of a minority group's cultural distinctiveness in relation to the dominant culture.

Profane:

objects or ideas are ordinary and can be treated with disregard or contempt

Sacred

objects or ideas are set apart from the ordinary and treated with great respect or care

Tribe:

political units organized around family ties that have fluid or shifting systems of temporary leadership

Neoliberalism:

the ideology of free-market capitalism emphasizing privatization and unregulated markets.

State:

the most complex form of political organization and are characterized by a central government that has a mo- nopoly over legitimate uses of physical force, a sizeable bureaucracy, a system of formal laws, and a standing military force.

One-drop rule:

the practice of excluding a person with any non-white ancestry from the white racial category.