anthropology chapter 2
Ethnocentrism
Feeling that everyone else is wrong and our way is right
Relativism
Interpreting culture using another culture's perspective
If you wanted to understand the norms of a society, you would most likely focus on
everyday interaction
A social consequence of introducing coffee into the highlands of Papua New Guinea was that
young men gained social status, coffee plantations took over all open land an people had more access to commodities
The theorist most connected with post-structuralism is
Renato Rosaldo
holistic perspective
connections between individual cultural beliefs and practices
All humans are born with some culture
false
Because our values and beliefs include many elements of life such as clothes, food, and language means that culture is
intergrated
norms
patterns of behavior and rules about how thingd should be done
If a functionalist were to explain why the teacher lectures from the front of the classroom to students organized in neatly arranged chairs, she or he would emphasize that
this way of teaching organizes people to promote shared cultural goals
The main idea behind the holistic perspective is to study culture
through systematic connections of different parts
The most enduring and ritualized aspects of culture are referred to as
traditions
Culture can be transmitted virtually through the Internet in addition to face-to-face interaction.
true
Culture consists of the collective processes that make the artificial seem natural
true
Who was responsible for the theory of functionalism?
Emile Durkheim
The American anthropologist responsible for the concept of historical particularism was named
Marvin Harris
cultural construction
People build concepts, meanings,practices out of shared experiences
A cross-cultural perspective on eating insect larvae would reveal
The artificiality of taste, the cultural constructions of insects as food, that eating insects can be adaptive
Interpretive theory of culture
a theory that culture is embodied and transmitted through symbols
The idea that Ongee ancestors make tidal waves and earthquakes would be understood by an interpretive anthropologist as
a way of explainign how the world works
symbol
an object, idea,image,figure or character that represents something else
cross-cultural perspective
analyzing a human social phenomenon by comparing that phenomenon in different cultures necessary to appreciate just how artificial our beliefs are
interpretive
approach to culture, such as that promoted by Clifford Geertz, Victor Turner, and Mary Douglas, emphasizes that culture is a shared system of meanings.
functionalism
assumes that cultural practices and beliefs serve purposes for society
anthropology overcome ehtnocentrism
by using relativistic perspective
A symbol is
can be used to express something or stand for something
When Kay Warren presented her anthropological research, a group of Maya intellectuals, activists, and political leaders:
challenged her right, as a foreign anthropologist, to study the Maya culture
Anthropologists believe that analyzing human cultural phenomena by comparing those phenomena across different societies, called the
cross-cultural
Collective definitions of proper and improper behavior that "build" meanings through common experiences and negotiations are cultural
cultural construction
interpretive theory of culture
culture is embodied and transmitted through symbols
explicit
directly taught to you... to write, analyzing a text
Culture is
dynamic, shared, learned
The process of learning culture from a very young age is called
enculturation
The experience of feeling that the way your culture does things is the right way and any different way of doing things is wrong is called
ethnocentrism
Cultural appropriation involves relationships of power.
false
Cultural relativism is important because it helps anthropologists understand and defend all the things that people in other cultures do.
false
Culture is uniquely human
false
People rarely hold conflicting values.
false
activities that are biologically based, such as eating and sleeping, are universally the same for all humans
false
most anthropologists believe in a single unified theory of culture
false
The theory of culture that proposes that cultural practices, beliefs, and institutions fulfill the psychological and physical needs of society is called
functionalism
The theory that posits that cultural practices and beliefs serve purposes for society is called
functionalism
The perspective that aims to identify and understand cultures in the entirety is called
holism
The defining feature of historical particularism is
individual societies develop particular cultural traits and undergo a unique process of change
Michael Ames developed exhibits with native Canadian communities at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia because he believed in
interpretive theory
Many anthropologists are wary about traditions because, while they may feel antiquated to some people, they are often
invented
Cultural determinism is unproductive for cultural analysis because
it explains all human action as the product of culture alone, it can justify atrocities, it denies the influence of factors like physical environment and biology on humans
How would a critical relativist explain Native American criticisms of cultural appropriation
it is important to understand Native American claims from their point of view though it doesn't necessarily mean we should accept them as the only way to view the issue
examples of social instutions
kinship, marriage and farming
Enculturation
learning the cultural rules and logic of a society
customs
long-established norms that have codified and law-like aspect
"Owning" culture
means controlling symbols that give meaning
implicit
not clearly expressed, like obedience, respect to social hierarchy sy
social institutions
organized sets of social relationships that link individuals to each other in a structured way in a particular society
Norms are stable because
people learn them when they are young
The structuralist approach to culture theorizes what?
people make sense of the world through binary oppositions
The idea that embraces dynamic cultural processes and the idea that the observer of cultural processes can never see culture completely objectively represent
post-structuralism
The controversy between Native Americans and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) schools using mascots illustrates
power of tradition
tradition
practices and customs that have become most ritualized and enduring
social sanctions
rewards or punishments that encourage conformity to social norms
The idea that cultures pass through stages from primitive to complex is known as
social evolution
The application of a holistic perspective to understand changes in everyday practices, such as eating breakfast cereals, reveals
the connections between social institutions and sexuality are interconnected
Ethnocentrism
the feeling that our culture and the way we do things is correct
cultural determinism
the idea that all human actions are the product of culture, which denies the influence of other factors like physical environment and human biology on human behavior
Cultural appropiation
the unilateral decision of one group to take control over the symbols practices or objects another