Test Two
Pantribal Sodalities:
Groups that extend across the whole tribe, spanning several villages - Esp. likely to develop in situations of warfare (could assemble a force to attack, defend, or retaliate) - The best example of a PS is from the Central Plains of North America and from Africa (Next slide)
Work and Happiness
A relationship appears to exist between a country's rate of female labor-force participation and it citizens' feelings of well-being - Well-being and happiness is based on 6 variables: per-capita gross domestic product (GDP), social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity in giving, and perceptions of corruption - As the first five increase, so does happiness - As the last variable decreases, happiness increases
Nationalities:
Groups that have, once had, or wish to have or regain, political autonomy (their own country) - As a result of political upheavals, wars, and migration, many nationalities have been split and placed in separate nation-states
States also manage their populations by...
Granting different rights and obligations to citizens and noncitizens (Social distinctions= common) - Before the Emancipation Proclamation, there were different laws for enslaved and free people - In European colonies, separate courts judged cases involing only natives and cases involving Europeans - In contemporary America, a military judiciary coexists
"Devoted actors"
individuals who are willing to kill and die for values and beliefs they consider to be sacred and unquestionable - Commitment will be strongest when sacred values are shared
Morton Fried
"Political organization comprises those portions of social organization that specifically relate to the individuals or groups that manage their affairs of public policy or seek to control the appointment or activities of those individuals or groups" - Fits contemporary nation-states - Various agencies and levels of government (political parties, unions, corporations, consumers, lobbyists, activists, PACs, religious groups, and NGOs) - In nonstates, it is difficult to detect any "public policy"
Horticulture is also known as ____
"Shifting Cultivation" because farmers shift back and forth between plots - Shifting cultivation does not mean that whole villages must move when plots are abandoned (but it also could involve moving a lot)
The Village Head
(Always a man) Chosen based on his personal characteristics and the support he can muster from fellow villagers - Is not inherited - Their power is very limited (Lacks the right to issue orders; he can only persuadem harangue, and try to influence public opinion) - When conflict erupts -> the headman may be called on as a mediator who listens to both sides - BUT, has no power to back his decisions and no way to impose punishments - Must lead in generosity - Provides much of the food consumed when his village hosts a feast for another village (he represents the village in its dealings with outsiders)
Polyandry:
(RARE)- In which a woman has more than one husband - In North America, polygamy is against the law - We are allowed to practice Serial Monogamy: Individuals may have more than one spouse but never, legally, more than one at the same time
Zadruga
(extended family) is the most important kinship unit in Bosnia - Nuclear families do not exist as independent units - People live in a household called a zadruga with their extended family headed by a senior man and his wife - Also there were the married sons and their wives + children, as well as unmarried sons and daughters - Possessions were shared freely by zadruga members - Social interaction was more usual among its women, its men, or its children than between spouses, or between parents and children - Members ate at three successive meals: for men, women, and children - All children over 12 slept together - When a woman in the house wanted to visit another village, she needed permission from the senior man - Any adult in the household was suppose to treat all children equally (could discipline any of the kids) - When a marriage broke up, children under seven usually went with their mothers; if the children were older, they could pick - Children were considered part of the household where they were born
External Sanction
(forces set in motion by others, for example, through gossip Guilt as an internal sanction (psychologically generated by the individual - Shame is a more prominent form of social control in non-Western societies + guilt as a more dominant emotion sanction in Western societies - In order to be effective, the prospect of being shamed or of shaming oneself must be internalized by the individual - Shame can be a powerful social sanction - Social sanctions exist alongside governmental ones - Exemplugt other "weapons of the weak" because they often are wielded most effectively by people who have limited access to the formal authority structure
The best example of a PS is from the Central Plains of North America and from Africa
- 18 and 19th century -> rapid economic change that followed the spread of horses (they changed their adaptive strategies because of the horses) - As the Plains tribes were undergoing these changes, other groups also adopted horseback hunting and moved into the Plains - Attempting to occupy the same area, groups came into conflict - Two activities demanded strong leadership: Organizing and carrying out raids on enemy camps and managing the summer bison hunt - All the Plains societies developed pantribal sodalities, and leadership roles within them, to police the summer hunt In Africa... - Men born during the same four-year period were circumcised together and belonged to the same name group, an age set, throughout their lives - The sets moved through Age Grades, the most important of which was the warrior grade - Members felt a strong allegiance to one another - In Africa, sodalities are secret societies, made up exclusively of men or women - Age, gender, and ritual can link members of different local groups into a single social collectively in a tribe and thus create a sense of ethnic ID, of belonging to the same cultural tradition
Minangkabau of West Sumatra
- A matriarchy- women are the center, origin, and foundation of the social order - Women control land inheritance + couples reside matrilocally - In a divorce, the man simply takes his things and leaves - Despite the position of women, their matriarchy is not the equivalent of female rule, given the Minangkabau belief that all decision making should be by consensus
Cargo Cults:
- A type of revitalization movement - Have arisen in colonial situations in which local people have regular contact with outsiders but lack their wealth, technology, and living standards - Attempt to explain European domination and wealth and to achieve similar success by mimicking European behavior - Many use elements of European culture as sacred objects - The rationale is that Europeans use these objects, have wealth, and therefore must know the "secret of cargo" - Blend Aboriginal and Christian beliefs - Are religious responses to the expansion of the world capitalist economy - This religious mobilization had political and economic results - Paved the way for political parties and economic interest organizations
Issues with racial classification...
- Although races are supposedly based on shared genetic material, early scholars instead used phenotypical traits (usually skin color) for racial classification - Racial classifications based on phenotype raise the problem of deciding which traits should be primary - Should races be defined by height, weight, body shape, etc. - Early European and American scientists gave priority to skin color - Many schoolbooks still proclaim the existence of three great races: White, Black, and Yellow - This overly simplistic classification was compatible with the political use of race during the colonial period
A given society usually have more than one descent group
- Any one of them can be confined to a single village, but they usually span more than one village - Local Descent Group- Any branch of a descent group that lives in one place - Two or more local branches of different descent groups may live in the same village
Similarities between "Big Men" and American Politicians...
- Big men get their loyalists to produce and deliver pigs, just as modern politicians persuade their supporters to make campaign contributions - Politicians also try to be generous - Politicians also try to have proper speech + good physical fitness - Bravery, in the form of military service, also helps political careers - Almost all political candidates claim to belong to a mainstream religion - On the other hand, contemporary politics is not just about personality, as it is in big man systems - We live in a state-organized, stratified society with inherited wealth, power, and privilege, all of which have political implications (inheritance and kin connections play a role in success)
But, things are changing
- Choice of "some other race" in the US census tripled between 190 and 2010-- suggesting dissatisfaction with the existing categories - In 2010, 7 million people chose a first-ever option of Identifying themselves as belonging to two or more races - The number of interraical marriages and children is increasing, w/ implications for the traditional system of American racial classification Rather than race, Canadia census asks about "visible minorities" - As in the United States, Canada's visible minority population has been growing much faster than the country's overall population
Totemism:
- Could be animals, plants, or geographic features - Each tribe had particular totems - Believed themselves to be descendants of their totem - Only once a year, when people assembled for ceremonies dedicated to the totem, were they allowed to kill and eat their totem (These annual rites were believed to be necessary for the totem's survival) - Uses nature as a model for society - People relate to nature through their totemic association - Because each group has a different totem, social differences mirror natural contrasts - Diversity in the natural order becomes a model for diversity in the social order - Totems are emblems symbolizing common ID - Totemic principles continue to demarcate groups, including clubs, teams, and universities (badgers, tigers, bears)
Family violence and domestic abuse of women are also widespread problems ->
- Domestic violence occurs in nuclear family settings + patriarchal contexts - Cities, with their impersonality and isolating from extended kin networks, are breeding grounds for domestic violence - As may be certain rural areas where women lead isolated lives - When a women lives in her own village, she has kin nearby to protect her interests - Unfortunately, settings in which women have a readily available support network are disappearing - BUT, with the spread of women's rights and human rights movements, attention to abuse of women has increased - Laws have been passed and mediating institutions established
Marriage does have several roles besides children...
- Establish legal parentage - Give either or both spouses a monopoloy on the sexulaity of the other - Give either or both spouses rights to the labor of the other - Give either or both spouses rights over the other's property - Establish a joint fund or property-- a partnership-- for the benefit of the children - Establish a socially significant "relationship of affinity" between spouses and their relatives
More on the Inuit...
- Inuits had "headman" and "shamans", but these positions conferred little power - Every man could hunt, fish, and make the tools necessary for subsistence - Every woman could obtain the materials she needed, too - There was no notion of private ownership of land or animals - Traveling on land and sea in a bitter environment, Inuit men faced more dangers than women did - So women outnumbered men - Allowed some men to have more than one wife - The ability to support more than one wife conferred a certain amount of prestige, but it also encouraged envy - Most Inuit disputes were between men and originated over women, caused by wife stealing and adultery - A jilted husband had several options... - He could kill the wife thief - However, then one of his rival's kinsmen would try to retaliate (no government existed to stop such a Blood Feud- A murderous feud between families) - However, one also could challenge a rival to a song battle
All about "Liminality"
- Living in a time out of time - Communitas - Liminal people experience the same treatment and conditions and must act alike - In certain societies, including our own, liminal symbols may be used to set off one religious group from another - Such "Permanent liminal groups" (brotherhoods, cults, etc.) are found in nation-states -Such liminal features (poverty, obedience, abstinence, etc.) may be required for all cult members - It is as if their passage rite is never ending - Submerge the individual in the collective - This may be why America, a very individualistic nation, is so fearful of things such as cults
In today's world system, Brazil's system of racial classification has been changing in the context of international ID politics and right movements ->
- More and more Brazilians claim indigenous IDs - In states as Bahia, where African demographic and cultural influence is strong, public universities have instituted affirmative action programs
Races Are Not Biologically Distinct
- One obvious problem with classifying people by skin color is that the terms, "White", "Black", and "Yellow" do not accurately describe human skin colors - Another issue with classifying people by skin color is that many populations do not fit neatly into any one of the three "great races" - Similar problems arise when any single trait is used as a basis for racial classification - Racial classification would be better if we based them on a combination of physical traits - But it would still run into problems... - Physical features do not go together in a coherent and consistent bundle - The number of combinations is very large, and the amount that heredity (vs environment) contributes to such phenotypical traits is often unclear
There are universals in human thought + experience, common conditions and situations that call out for explanation
- One of these Q's is what happens in sleep and trance, and with death - Another -> why do some prosper while others fail - A religious explanation might blame unequal success or fortune on such nonmaterial factors such as luck, mana, sorcery, or being "chosen"
Polygyny is much more common in...
- Patrilineal than in matrilineal societies (due to women's high status) - Not common in foraging societies, where a married couple + nuclear family often function as an economically viable team - An equal sex ratio also tends to work against polygyny if marriage is an expectation for both men + women - The custom of men marrying later than women promotes polygyny - Age difference means there are more windows than widowers - Polygyny is also favoried in situations in which having plural wives is an indicator of a man's household productivity, prestige, and social position - Polygyny is also supported when the existing spouses agree that another one should be added, especially if they are to share the same household - Sometimes the first wife requests another to help with chores - The second wife's status is lower than that of the first - Sometimes the junior wife is chosen from the senior wife's kinswomen - Polygyny can also work when the cowives live apart - Polygyy can also be politically advantageous
Polynesian chiefs had many duties including managing the economy and...
- Regulated production by commanding or prohibiting the cultivation of certain lands and crops - Also regulated distribution and consumption - At certain seasons, people would offer part of their harvest to the chief through their representatives - Chiefs then sponsored feasts at which they gave back some of what they had received - Unlike big men, chiefs were exempt from ordinary work + had rights and privileges unavailable to the masses - Like big men, they still returned a portion of the wealth they took in - Chiefly Redistribution - Offers economic advantages - If different parts of the chiefdom specialized in particular products, chiefly redistribution made those products available to the entire society - Also helped stimulate production beyond the basic subsistence level
Kapauku Papuans
- Their cultivation system was too labor intensive to be described as simple horticulture - Supported a larger and denser population than does the simpler horticulture of the Yanomami - Required collective cultivation and political regulation of the more complex tasks - Their key political figure was the Big Man - Attributes that distinguished the big man from his fellows included wealth, generosity, eloquence, physical fitness, bravery, supernatural powers, and the ability to gain support and loyalty of others - Did not inherit their position, but created it through hard work + good judgment - Wealth resulted from successful pig breeding and trading - Their big man, known as Tonowi, was an important regulator of regional events - Was very generous (a stingy man would lose his support)
However, there are lingering obstacles...
- Women still do much more domestic work than men do, and the average man still works longer hours outside the home + earns more money - There is also a persistent stereotype of the incompetent male homemaker - American women maintain deeply entrenched stereotypes about men's lack of domestic capabilities - Both fathers and mothers are seeking jobs that offer flexibility, require less travel, and include paid parental leave - The USA lags behind other developed nations in providing such benefits - The work-family balance is especially hard for low-wage workers (they tend to have the least workplace flexibility, the most uncertain work hours, and the fewest benefits)
Africa contains two broad belts of contemporary/recent foraging ->
1) Kalahari Desert -- home of the San ("Bushmen") 2) The equatorial forest of central and eastern Africa-- home of the Mbuti, Efe, and other "pygmies"
Several forces have propelled North America away from the assimilationist model and toward multiculturalism ->
1) Multiculturalism reflects the fact of recent large-scale migration, particularly from the less-developed countries 2) Multiculturalism is related to globalization - People use modern means of transportation to migrate to nations whose lifestyles they learn about through the media and from tourists - Migration also is fueled by rapid population growth, coupled with insufficient jobs, in the less developed-countries
Historically, scientists have approached the study of human biological diversity in two main ways...
1) Racial classification (now largely abandoned) 2) The current explanatory approach, which focuses on understanding specific differences - Biological differences are real, important, and apparent to us all
Economic anthropologists have been concerned with two main questions:
1. How are production, distribution, and consumption organized in different societies? This question focuses on systems of human behavior and their organization 2. What motivates people in different societies to produce, distribute or exchange, and consume? Here the focus is not on systems of behavior but on the individuals who participate in those systems
Latino
A broader category, which also can include Brazilians (who speak Portuguese)
Incest and Its Avoidance
A cross-cultural study of 87 societies suggest that incest occured in several of them - Cross-cousin marriage is the preferred form of marriage among the Yanomami - Among 24 Ojibwa individuals from whom he obtained information about incest, he found 8 cases of parent-child incest and 10 cases of brother-sister incest - In ancient Egypt, sibling marriage was allowed both for royalty and for commoners (the numbers are very high) For Western societies, father-daughter incest is much more common with stepfathers than with biological fathers - But is it really incest if they were not biologically related? - Incest also happens with biological fathers, especially those who were absent or did little caretaking - Father-daughter incest is least likely when there is substantial paternal parenting of daughters
Lineage:
A descent group based on demonstrated descent - Members can demonstrate how they descent from their common ancestor, by naming their forebears in each generation - Unlike lineages, members of a clan do not demonstrate how they descend from their common ancestor; they merely claim, assert, or stipulate their common ancestry
Clan:
A descent group based on stipulated descent
Potlatch:
A festive event within a regional exchange system among tribes of the North Pacific Coast of North America - The sponsoring community gives away food and wealth items (blankets and pieces of copper) - In return, the sponsoring community receives prestige - Prestige increases with the lavishness of the potlatch - Some North Pacific tribes still practice potlatch, sometimes as a memorial to the dead
State:
A form of sociopolitical organization based on a formal government structure and socioeconomic stratification
Family:
A group of people who are considred to be related in some way, for example, by "blood" or marriage - Some families are residentially based (live together) - Others are not residentially based, but come together time to time
Karl Polanyi
A key early contributor to the comparative study of exchanges and several anthropologists followed his lead - Defined three principles that guide exchanges... - The market principles, redistribution, and reciprocity - These can all be present in the same society, but in that case they govern different kinds of transactions - In any society, one of them usually dominates (the one that dominates -> determines how the means of production are exchanged)
Law:
A legal code with trial and enforcement, but they did have methods of social control and dispute settlement
Dowry:
A marital gift occurs when the bride's family or kin group provides substantial gifts when their daughter marries - More commonly, however, the dowry goes to the husband's family, and the custom is correlated with low female status - This form of dowry is best known in India where women are seen as burdens
Sexual Orientation:
A person's sexual attraction to, and habitual sexual activites with, persons of the opposite sex (heterosexuality), the same sex (homosexuality), or both sexses (bisexuality)
Mana:
A sacred impersonal force existing in the universe - Could reside in people, animals, plants, and objects - Similar to our notion of luck - Objects with mana could change someone's luck Beliefs in manalike forces have been widespread, although the specifics of the religious doctrines have varied - In Melanesia, anyone could acquire mana - In Polynesia, chiefs and nobles had more mana than ordinary people - So charged with mana were the highest chiefs that contact with them was dangerous - Because high chiefs had so much mana, their bodies and possessions were Taboo
Band:
A small group of fewer than a hundred people, all related by kinship or marriage - Some bands split up for part of the year + members left to gather resources - Typical characteristics of the foraging life are flexibility and mobility
Plural Society:
A society combining ethnic contrasts, ecological specialization, and the economic interdependence of those groups
Hegemony:
A stratified social order in which subordinates comply with domination by internalizing their rulers' values and accepting the "naturalness" of domination - Every social order tries to make its own arbitrariness seem natural and in everyone's interest -- even when that is not the case - It is easier to control people in their minds than to try to control their bodies - Nonphysical forms of social control include various techniques of persuading and managing people and of monitoring and recording their beliefs, activities, and contacts - One way elites curb resistance to their power - Another way is to make subordinates believe they will eventually gain power - Another way is to separate or isolate people while supervising them closely (prison) - Some contexts enable/encourage public resistance
Economy:
A system of production, distribution, and consumption of resources - Economists tend to focus on modern nations + capital systems - Anthropologists have broadened understanding of economic principles by gathering data on nonindustrial economies
Shaman-
A term that encompasses curers, mediums, spiritualists, astrologers, palm readers, and other independent diviners
Cultural Ecology
A theoretical school that attempts to interpret cultural practices, such as the potlatch, in terms of their long-term role in helping humans adapt to their environments - They believe that customs such as the potlatch are cultural adaptations to alternating periods of local abundance and shortage The potlatch linked local groups along the North Pacific Coast into a regional alliance and exchange network - Had adaptive functions, regardless of the motivations of the individual participants The potlatch does not, and did not, exist apart from larger world events (traded with Europeans)
Mode of Production:
A way of organizing production-- "a set of social relations through which labor is deployed to wrest energy from nature by means of tools, skills, organization, and knowledge" - In the capitalist mode of production, money buys labor power, and a social gap exists between the people involved in the production process - In nonindustrial societies, labor usually is not bought but is given as a social obligation - In a kin-based mode of production mutual aid in production is one among many expressions of a larger web of social relations - Typifies foragers, horticulturalists, pastoralists, and many agriculturalists - Societies with the same strategy of adaption (foraging) and the same mod of production (kin-based) can organize the specifics of production differently
Power:
Ability to exercise one's will over others
Costs and Benefits of Agriculture
Agriculture requires human labor - An agricultural field does not necessarily produce a higher single-year yield than does a horticultural plot - BUT, agriculture's main advantage is that the long-term yield per area is far greater and more dependable
Ethnic Expulsion
Aims at removing groups that are culturally different from a country When members of an ethnic group are expelled, they often become Refugees
Enforcement
All states have enforcement agents-- some kind of police force - Duties may include apprehending and imprisoning criminals - The Government uses its enforcement agents to maintain internal order, suppress disorder, and guard against external threats Armies help states conquer neighboring stats, but conquest is not the only reasons state organization has spread - When they are successful at promoting internal peace, states enhance production - Their economies can support massive, dense populations, which supply armies and colonists to promote expansion
Fiscal Support
All states have fiscal systems - States could not maintain the government apparatus and agents without a secure means of financial support - Governments rely on Fiscal mechanisms to support their officials and numerous other specialists - As in chiefdom, the state intervenes in production, distribution, and consumption - Like chiefdoms, states have redistribution - BUT less goes back to the people - In nonstates, people share with their relatives - People in states also have to turn over a significant portion of what they make (not to relatives, but to the state) - Markets and trade are usually under some state oversight, with officials overseeing distribution and exchange, standardizing weights and measures, and collecting taxes on goods passing into or through the state - It reallocates part of this money for the general good and keeps another part for itself-- its agents and agencies - State organization does not bring more freedom or leisure to the common people, who may be conscripted to build monumental public works - Residents of archaic states also had to build temples, palaces, and tombs for the lites
Judiciary
All states have laws based on precedent and legislative proclamations
Ethnic Groups, Nations, and Nationalities
All three of these terms have been used to refer to a single cultural sharing a single language, religion, history, territory, ancestry, and kinship - NOW, nation has come to mean state - Nation and state have become synonymous
Organization of Production in Nonindustrial Societies
Although some kind of division of economic labor related to age and gender is cultural universal, the specific tasks assigned to each sex and to people of different ages vary - Many horticultural societies assign a major productive role to women, but some make men's work primary - Pastoralists make men tend to large animals, but in some societies women do the milking
"Family" meaning in America VS Brazil
American -> Their spouse and their children - Because middle-class Americans lack an extended family support system, marriage assumes more importance - Places a strain on American marriages Brazil -> Parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins (and their children) - Children are shared by two families - Living in a less mobile society, Brazilians stay in closer contact with their relatives (including extended family members)
Land as a Means of Production
Among foragers, ties between people and land are less permanent than they are among food producers - One acquires the right to use a band's territory by being born in that band or by joining it through a tie of kinship or marriage - Among food producers, rights to the means of production also comes through kinship and marriage
Nation-State:
An autonomous political entity, a country
Lineages, Clans, and Residence Rules
An easy way to keep members at home is to have a rule about who belongs to the descent group and where they should live after they get married - With patrilineal descent, the typical postmarital residence rule is Patrilocality - Associated with matrilineal descent, is Matrilocality - Regardless of where one resides after marriage, one remains a member of one's original unilineal descent group for life
Foraging:
An economy and way of life based on hunting and gathering - Environmental differences created substantial contrasts among foragers living in different parts of the world - Ex) People who lived in Europe during the ice ages -> big-game hunters - Far northern foragers have much less vegetation + variety in their diets than do tropical foragers - Despite differences caused by such environmental variation, all foraging economies have shared one essential feature: People rely on nature to make their living
Big Man:
An elaborate version of the village head, but with one significant difference - Unlike the village head, whose leadership is limited to one village, the big man had supporters in several villages - The big man thus was a regulator of Regional political organization
Ethnic Conflict
An ethnic group may react if it perceives prejudice or discriminiation by another group, or society as a whole, or if it feels otherwise devalued or disadvantaged - An ethnic group can also resent the actual or perceived privileges of other groups
State
An independent, centrally organized political unit, or a government
Communitas:
An intense community spirit, a feeling of great social solidarity, equality, and togetherness
Anthropologists share with political scientists...
An interest in political systems, power, and politics - But, the anthropological approach is global and comparative, where political scientists tend to focus on contemporary nations - Anthropological Studies -> shown variation in power, authority, and legal systems in diff. Societies
Gender Stratification:
An unequal distribution of rewards (socially values resources, power, prestige, human rights, and personal freedom) between men and women, reflecting their different positions in a social hierarchy - In stateless societies, gender stratification often is more obvious in regard to prestige than it is in regard to wealth
Ronald Brownstein
Analyzes an intensifying confrontation between groups he describes as "the gray (the old) and the brown (the young) " - Focuses on two key US demographic trends: - 1) Ethnic/racial diversity is increasing, especially among the young - 2) The country is aging, and most of the senior population is White - Sees these trends as creating a "cultural generation gap" -- a sharp contrast in the attitudes, priorities, and political learnings of younger and older Americans - The aging White population appears increasingly resistant to taxes and public spending, while younger people and minorities value government support of education, health, and social welfare (Young= democrats and Old= conservatives) - The gray and the brown are more interdependent economically than either usually realizes - Minority workers will pay a growing share of the payroll taxes needed to sustain Social Security and Medicare in the future - The history of the US national immigration policy helps us understand how the gap arose - Federal policies in the 1920s severely curtailed immigration from areas other than northern Europe - In 1965, Congress loosened restrictions-- resulting in an eventual influx of immigrants from southern Europe, Asia, Africa, the Carribbean, and Latin America - Non-hispanic Whites constituted the majority of Americans through the mid-20th century, including the post-World War 2 baby boom - Most of them grew up isolated from minorities - As they age and retire, many older white Americans are reconstitution such communities in racially homogeneous enclaves in the Southeast and Southwest - They live apart from multicultural American and the minorities who represent a growing share of the national population
Race in the Census
Attempts to add a "multiracial" category to the US census have been opposed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Council of La Raza (a Hispanic advocacy group) - Rational classification is a political issue involving access to resources - Minorities fear that their political clout will decline if their numbers go down
Terracing
Another agricultural technique the Ifugao have mastered - Because their population is so dense and their lands so hilly -> they must make use of the hilly land! - But, if they simply planted on the steep hillsides, fertile soil and crops would be washed away during the rainy season - So, the Ifugao cut into the hillside and built stage after stage of terraced fields - Springs above the terraces supply irrigation water - Terrace walls crumble each year + must be partially rebuilt (the canals that bring water down through the terraces also demand attention)
Edward Burnett Tylor
Another founder of the anthropology of religion - Believed that religion arose as people tried to understand phenomena they could not explain by reference to daily experience - He believed people were particularly intrigued with death, dreaming, and tranc - People see images they may remember when they wake up - Attempts to explain dreams and trances led to early humans to believe that two entities inhabit the body - One is active during the day and the other is active during sleep (soul) - When the double leaves the body, the person dies - This whole belief= Animism He believes that religion developed through stages, beginning with animism Because religion existed to explain things, Tylor believed religion would decrease with science - He was in part right - BUT because religion persists even among those who accept science, it must do something more than explain
The Inuit
Another group of foragers -> provide a classic example of methods of settling disputes-- Conflict Resolution-- in stateless societies - All societies have ways of settling disputes (of variable effectiveness) along with cultural rules or norms about proper and improper behavior - Norms - Although rules and norms are cultural universals, only state societies, those with established governments, have formal laws that are formulated, proclaimed, and enforced - Foragers lacked form Law
Homogenization, Indigenization, Or Hybridization?
Any cultural form that spreads from one society to another has to fit into the country and culture it enters
Stereotypes:
Are fixed ideas-- often unfavorable-- about what the members of a group are like - Assume that members of the group will act as they are "supposed to act" + interpret a wide range of individual behaviors as evidence of the stereotype
Edward Sapir
Argued for a distinction between "a religion" and "religion" - "A religion"= apply only to formally organized religion - "Religion"= universial; it refers to religious beliefs and behavior, which exist in all societies Anthropologists agree that religion exists in all human societies
David Martin
Argues that Pentecostalism is spreading so rapidly because it adherents embody Max Weber's Protestant ethic-- valuing self discipline, hard work, and thrift
The biological nature of men and women should be seen not as a narrow enclosure limiting the human organism, but rather ->
As a broad base upon which a variety of structures can be built
The Plural Society
Assimilation is not inevitable, and there can be ethnic harmony without it
Correlations:
Associations or covariations between two or more variables - Studies in hundreds of societies have revealed many correlations between the economy and social life - Some of the correlations... - People who subsisted by hunting and gathering, often, but not always, lived in band-organized societies - Foraging societies tend to be egalitarian
Hypodescent:
Automatically places the children of a union between members of different groups in the minority group
Agriculture's increased labor intensity and permanent land use have major demographic, social, political, and environmental consequences ->
Because of their permanent fields, agriculturists tend to be sedentary - There has also been a growth in population size and density increases contact between individuals and groups - There is now more need to regulate interpersonal relations - Irrigation ditches and paddies (fields with irrigated rice) become repositories for organize wastes, chemicals (such as salts), and disease microorganisms - Intensive agriculture typically spreads at the expense of trees and forests, which are cut down to be replaced by fields - Accompanying such deforestation is loss of environmental diversity - Pose a series of regulatory problems - This is true bc -> people live closer together and on more valuable land
The Cultivation Continuum
Because some nonindustrial economies have features of both horticulture and agriculture, it is useful to discuss cultivators as being arranged along a "Cultivation Continuum" - The one key difference between horticulture and agriculture is that horticulture always has a follow period, whereas agriculture does not
Animal domestication (initially of sheep and goats) and plant cultivation (of wheat and barely)...
Began 12,000-10,000 years ago in the Middle East - Cultivation based on different crops, such as corn (maize), manioc (cassava), and potatoes, arose independently in the Americas - In both hemispheres most societies eventually turned from foraging to food production - Today most foragers have at least some dependence on food production
Religion:
Belief and ritual concerned with supernatural beings, powers, and forces - Supernatural= nonmaterial realm beyond the observable world - The supernatural cannot be verified or falsified empirically and is inexplicable in ordinary terms - Rather, it must be accepted on "faith" - Supernatural beings= deities, ghosts, demons, souls, and spirits, which dwell outside our material world, which they may visit from time to time - Supernatural forces, which are wielded by deities and spirits or they just simply exist - In certain societies, people believe they can benefit from, become imbued with, or manipulate such forces
Rites of Passage
Beliefs and rituals can also create anxiety - Participation in a collective ritual can produce stress, whose common relief, once the ritual is completed, enhances the solidarity of the participants
Pantribal Sodalities
Big men could forge regional political organization by mobilizing supporters from several villages - Other principles-- such as belief in common ancestry, kinship,or descent-- could be used to link groups - Principles other than kinship also can link local groups, especially in modern societies (Labor Union, sorority or fraternity, political party, etc.) - In tribes, nonkin groups called Associations or Sodalities may serve a similar linking function - Often they are based on common age or gender
Most religions include ____ and ____
Both spirits and forces
Phenotype and Fluidity: Race in Brazil
Brazil has less exclusionary categories, which permit individuals to alter their racial classification - Brazil shares a history of slavery with the USA, but it lacks the hypodesent rule - Brazilians use many more racial labels than Americans or Japanese do - In the USA, one's race is assigned automatically by hypodescent and usually does not change - In Brazil, racial ID is more flexible, more of an achieved status - Brazilian racial classification pays attention to phenotype - A Brazilians phenotype and racial label may change because of environmental factors - A Brazilian can also change their "race" by changing his or her manner of dress, language, location, and even attitude - Furthermore, racial differences in Brazil may be so insignificant in structuring community life that people may forget the terms they have applied to others
The Spread of Islam
Can be used to illustrate cultural globalization - Also illustrates cultural hybridization - Islam has adpated successfully to the many nations + cultuers it has entered - Most Muslims' discussion of their faith occurs in their local language - Mosques incorporate architectural and decorative elements from their national settings - Sometimes Islam blends with other local religions (Confucianism) Although certain core features endure, local people always assign their own meanings to the messages and social forms they receive from outside
Caste System:
Castes are stratified groups in which lifelong membership is set at birth - Castes are grouped into five major categories, or Varna - Each varna includes a large number of minor castes (Jati), each of which includes people within a region who intermarry - All varnas and jatis are ranked BTW - Occupational specialization often sets off one caste from another - The belief that intercaste sex leads to ritual impurity for the higher-caste partner has been important in maintaining endogamy - A man who has sex with a lower-caste woman can restore his purity with a bath + prayer (but a woman has no such recourse) - Because women have the babies, these differences ensure the pure ancestry of high-caste children - Although Indian castes are endogamous groups, many of them are internally subdivided into exogamous lineages - Shows that exogamy and endogamy can coexist
Changes in Gendered Work
Changing attitudes about women's work have reflected economic conditions and world events - The idea that "a woman's place is in the home" developed as industrialism spread - This was due to an influx of European immigrants, providing a male workforce willing to accept low wages for jobs - Then, machine tools + mass production further reducted the need for female labor When men are off fighting wars, work outside the home has been presented as women's patriotic duty (and the notion that women are unfit for labor fades)
Political and Economic Systems
Chiefdoms existed in the circum-Caribbean, lowland Amazonia, and Polynesia - Much of our knowledge of chiefdoms comes from Polynesia, where Chiefdoms were common @ the time of European exploration In chiefdoms, social relations are based mainly on kinship, marriage, descent, age, generation, and gender-- just as in many tribes and bands - This is a big difference between tribes and states (states bring nonrelatives together) - Unlike bands and tribes, chiefdoms administer a clear-cut permanent regional political system - Regulation is carried out by the chief and his or her assistants who occupy political offices - Office
The Emergence of Stratification
Chiefs and their closest relatives, backed by their differential wealth and power, sometimes launched attacks on the kinship basis of their chiefdom - In Madagascar, they would do this by demoting their more distant relatives to commoner status and banning marriage between nobles and commoners (Social Strata)
Thorstien Veblen
Cited potlatching as a prime example of conspicuous consumption in his book The Theory of the Leisure Class, claiming that potlatching was based on an economically irrational drive for prestige - In some societies people strive to maximize prestige at the expense of their material well-being - This idea has been challenged
Pantheons-
Collections of deities
Explain the lack of environmental diversity
Compared w/ horticulture, agricultural economies are specialized (they focus on one or a few caloric staples) - Agriculturists do this because they attempt to reduce risk in production by favoring stability in the form of a reliable annual harvest and long-term production - By contrast, horticulturists attempt to reduce risk by relying on multiple species and benefitting from ecological diversity - The agricultural strategy makes sense when there are lots of children to raise + adults to be fed - Horticulture is associated with smaller, sparser, and more mobile populations
Religion is associated with social divisions within and between societies and nations ->
Confrontations have increased between so-called world religions, such as Christianity and Islam
What are some elements of this religion?
Converts are expected to separate themselves both from their pasts + from their secular social world Pentecostalism strengthens family + household through a moral code that respects marriage and prohibits adultery, gambling, drinking, + fighting - Has appeal to men because it solidifies their authority within the household - While it is strongly patriarchal, women tend to be more active church members than men - It promotes services + prayer groups by and for women
The rapid population growth and business expansion that followed WW2 ->
Created a demand for women to fill jobs in clerical work, public school teaching, and nursing - Inflation and the culture of consumption also have spurred female employment - When demand and/or prices rise, multiple paychecks help maintain family living standards - Economic changes after WW2 also set the stage for the contemporary women's movement - Promoted expanded work opportunities for women, including the goal of pay for equal work - TODAY -> Women fill more than half of all management and professional jobs (and it is not just single women who are working) - Cash employment of American married men has been falling while that of American married women has been rising
Reduced Gender Stratification: Matrilineal-Matrilocal Societies
Cross-cultural variation in gender status also is related to rules of descent and post-marital residence - When matrilineal descent and matrilocality (residence after marriage with the wife's relatives), female status tends to be high - Occurs in societies where population pressure on strategic resources is minimal and warfare is infrequent - Women have high status in these societies b/c descent-group membership, succession to political positions, allocation of land, and overall social ID all come through female links - In such contexts, women are the basis of the entire social structure - Much of the power and decision making may belong to senior women - Patriliny and patrilocality (residence after marriage with the husband's kin), male status tends to be high
Ethnicity is based on...
Cultural similarities (shared with members of the same ethnic group) and differences (between that group and others)
Norms:
Cultural standards or guidelines that enable individuals to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate behavior in a given society
Max Weber
Defined three related dimensions of social stratification 1. Economic state, or Wealth 2. Power, the ability to exercise one's will over others-- to get what one wants-- is the basis of political status 3. Prestige - Prestige or "cultural capital" gives people a sense of worth and respect, which they may often convert into economic advantage
Attributes of Descent Groups
Descent groups are exogamous: They marry outside one's own group - Often, descent group membership is determined at birth and is lifelong - Two common rules admit certain people as descent-group members... 1. Patrilineal Descent 2. Matrilineal Descent
Patriarchy:
Describes a political system ruled by men in which women have inferior social and political status, including basic human rights - Societies that have patrilineal-patrilocal complex, replace with war and inter-village raiding, also typify patriarchy - Such practices as dowry murders, female infanticide, and clitoridectomy exemplify patriarchy The gender inequality spawned by patriarchy and violence, can be deadly - Ex2) In Afghanistan, Pakistan - Girls have been punished for attending school
Adaptive Strategy:
Describes a society's main system of economic production - Yehudi Cohen argued that the most important reason for similarities between two cultures is their possession of a similar adaptive strategy (AKA similar economic causes have similar sociocultural effects) - He grouped five adaptive strategies - Foraging, horticulture, agriculture, pastoralism, and industrialism
Fundamentalism
Describes antimodernist movements in various religions - Feel alienated from both, modern secular culture + large religious groups, whose founding principles, they believe, have been corrupted - They advocate return and strict fidelity to the "true" religious principles of the larger religion - Also seek to rescue religion from absorption into modern, Western culture
Assimilation:
Describes the process of change that members of ethnic groups may experience when they move to a country where another culture dominates - Adopt the patterns and norms of the host country - They are incorporated into the dominant culture to the point that their ethnic group no longer exists as a separate cultural unit - Ex) The United States was much more assimilationist during the 20th century than it is today, as the multicultural model has become more prominent
How can sunlight be harmful?
Destructive effects of UV radiation on folate, an essential nutrient that the human body manufactures from folic acid - Pregnant women need large amounts of folate to support rapid cell division - Folate deficiency causes neural tube defects (NTD) - Incomplete closure of the neural tube, so the spin and spinal cord faily to develop completely - UV radiation destroys folate in the human body - Melanin helps conserve folate in the human body and thus protects against NTDs
Prejudice:
Devaluing a group because of its assumed behavior, values, capabilities, or attributes - People are prejudiced when they hold stereotypes about groups and apply them to individuals
Endogamy:
Dictate mating or marriage within a group to which one belongs - Most cultures are endogamous units, although they usually do not need a formal rule requiring people to marry someone from their own society - In our society, classes and ethnic groups are quasi-endogamous groups - Members of an ethnic or religious group often want their children to marry within that group, although many of them do not
Racism:
Discrimination against such a group
Divorce among foragers??
Divorce is fairly common among foragers - Facilitating divorce is the fact that the group alliance functions of marriage are less important, because descent groups are less common among foragers - Also, marriages tend to last longer when a couple shares a significant joint fund of property
Shamans:
Early religious specialists
Gender Roles and Gender Stratification
Economic roles affect gender stratification (the unequal distribution of social value by gender)
Wealth:
Encompasses a person's material assets, including income, land, and other types of property
Intersex:
Encompasses a variety of conditions involving a discrepancy between the external genitals (penis, vagina) and the internal genitals (testes, ovaaries) - The causes of intersex are varied... 1) An XX intersex person has the chromosomes of a women and normal ovaries, uterus, and tubes, but the external genitals appear male - Due to a female fetus having been exposed to an excess of male hormones 2) An XY intersex person has the chromosomes of a man, but the external gentials are incompletely formed, ambiguous, or female 3) A true gonadal intersex person has both ovarian and testicular tissue - The external genitals may be ambiguous or may appear to be female or male 4) Intersex also can result from an usual chromosome combination, such as X0, XXY, XYY, and XXX - These chromosomal combinations do not typically produce a discrepancy between internal and external genitalia, but there may be problems with sex hormone levels + verall sexual development Many individuals affected by one of the biological conditions just describes themselves as male or female, rather than trasngender
Ethnic Tolerance and Accommodation
Ethnic diversity may be associated either with positive group interaction and coexistence or with conflict
Status and Identity
Ethnicity is only one basis for group ID - Individuals often have more than one group ID + in modern nations, people continually negotiate their social IDs - These different social IDs are known as statuses
Margaret Mead
Ethnographic study of variation in gender roles - Her book, Sex and Temperament in Three primitive Societies, was based on field work in Papua New Guinea: the Arapesh, Mundugumor, and Tchambuli - Arapesh men and women acted as Americans traditionally have expected women to act - Mundugumor men and women acted as Americans traditionally have expected men to act - Tchambuli men were "catty", wore curls, and went shopping, but women were energetic and managerial
Joel Robbins
Examined the extent to which Pentecostal/charismatic Christianity preserves its basic form and core beliefs as it spreads - Pentecostalism is a Western invention: its beliefs, doctrines, organizational features, and rituals originated in the USA - The core doctrines of acceptance of Jesus as one's savior, baptism with the Holy Spirit, faith healing, and belief in the second coming of Jesus have spread across nations and cultures without losing their basic shape - Scholars have argued about whether the spread is best understood as 1) process of Western domination + homogenization or 2) One in which imported cultural forms respond to local needs and are differentiated Robbins takes a middle-ground position - He finds little evidence that a Western political agenda is propelling the global spread - Pentecostal churches typically are staffed with locals - Pentecostalism spreads as other forces of globalization displace people and disrupt local lives - Offers tightly knit communities and weblike structure of personal connections - It is egalitarian (opportunities for participation and leadership are abundant)
Recurrent Gender Patterns
Exceptions to cross-cultural generalizations may involve societies or individuals Among the tasks almost always assigned to men, some (hunting large animals on land + sea) seem clearly related to the grater average size and strength of males (others do not seem related like working wood and making musical instruments) The table probably illustrates a male bias in the extradomestic activities received much more prominence than domestic activities The time and effort spent in subsistence activities by men and women tend to be about equal (if anything, women do slightly more) - In domestic activities and child care, female labor predominates - Adding together their subsistence activities and their domestic work, women tend to work more hours than men do Polygyny (multiple wives) is much more common than polyandry (multiple husbands) - Men also seemed to be less restricted concerning premarital and extramarital sex - Double standards that limit women more than men are one illustration of gender stratification
Reciprocity:
Exchanges between social equals, people who are related by some kind of personal tie, such as kinship or marriage - Occurs between social equals (the dominant exchange principle in egalitarian societies) - There are three forms of reciprocity... 1. Generalized-- Exchanges that occur between the most closely related people; there is no expectation of immediate return of a gift or favor - GR governs exchanges between foragers 2. Balanced-- Social distance increases,as does the need to reciprocate 3. Negative-- Social distance is greatest and reciprocation is most calculated - This range, from generalized through balances to negative, is called Reciprocity Continuum - These may be imagined as areas along a continuum defined by these questions... - How closely related are the parties to the exchange? AND How quickly and unselfishly are gifts reciprocated? - Generalized and balanced reciprocity are based on trust and social tie - With negative reciprocity, the goal is to get something for as little as possible (even if it means stealing/cheating) - One way of reducing the tension in situations of potential negative reciprocity is to engage in "silent trade" (there is no personal contact during exchanges)
Jablonski and Chaplin
Explain variation in human skin color as resulting from a balancing act between the evolutionary needs... 1) Protect against UV hazards 2) Have an adequate supply of vitamin D
Despite the many gains...
Female employment continues to lag noticeably in certain highly paid professions - In computer science + engineering, the % of female graduates has declined - By midcareer, twice the number of women as men leave their jobs in computer science (uncomfortable/unsupportive environment)
WF Loomis
Focused on the role of UV radiation in stimulating the manufacture of vitamin D by the human body
Status:
For any position, no matter what the prestige, that someone occupies in society - Among the statuses we occupy, particular ones dominate in particular settings - Some statuses are ascribed
Foraging in modern society...
Foraging economies survived into modern times in certain forests, deserts, islands, and very cold areas-- places where cultivation was not practicable with simple technology - Their habitats tend to have one thing in common-- their marginality We should not assume that foragers will inevitably turn to food production one they learn of its existence - Many have chosen to maintain their hunter-gatherer lifestyle - Their traditional economy supports them well enough, lacks the labor requirements associated with farming and herding, and provides an adequate and nutritious diet - HOWEVER, all surviving foragers now live in nation-states - Typically they are in contact with food-producing neighbors as well as with missionaries and other outsiders (we should not view contemporary foragers as isolated)
Rituals:
Formal- stylized, repetitive, and stereotyped - Performed in special places + set times - Include liturgical orders- sequences of words and actions invented prior to the current performance of the ritual in which they occur - Similar to plays - BUT actors merely portray something, while ritual performers are in earnest - Are social acts - Taking part in one signals that they accept a common social and moral order
Family of Procreation:
Formed when one marries and has children - In most societies, relations with nuclear family members take precedence over relations with other kin - Nuclear families existence and importance varies, though
Fredrik Barth
Found that ethnic boundaries are most stable and enduring when the groups occupy different ecological niches (AKA the make their living in different ways and do not compete) - Ideally, they should depend on each other's activities and exchange with one another - When different ethnic groups exploit the same ecological niche, the militarily more powerful group will typically replace the weaker one - If they exploit more or less the same niche, but the weaker group is better able to use marginal environments, they also may coexist - Given such niche specialization, ethnic boundaries and interdependence can be maintained, although the specific cultural features of each group may change
Sanday (1974)
Found that gender stratification decreased when men and women made roughly equal contributions to subsistence Gender status also is more equal when the domestic and public spheres are not sharply separated
Beyond Male and Female
Gender is socially constructed, and societies may recognize more than two genders - Transgender, intersex, gender fluid, and transexual
Gifts at Marriage
Gifts at marriage are widespread among the world's culture
Turner Syndrome encompasses several conditions, of which X0 is most common
Girls with Turner syndrome typically are sterile Biology is not destiny
Superordinate:
Higher/elite stratum had privileged access to valued resources
However, specific foraging techniques reflect variations in environment and resource distribution
Hill + mountain South Asian foragers -> favor focused hunting of medium-sized prey (monkey, macaque, porcupine) Other groups pursue several small species or practice broad-spectrum foraging of bats, porcupines, and deer Larger groups use communal hunting techniques, such as spreading nets over large fig trees to trap bats Some South Indian foragers focus on wild plant resources South Asian foraging societies harvest honey and beeswax
Olympian-
Home of the classical Greek Gods - Gods have specialized functions (love, war, sea, etc.) - Pantheons - Prominent in the religions of many nonindustrial nation-states (Aztecs, classical Greece and Rome, etc.) (They were Polytheistic- Featuring many deities) - Contrastly, In monotheism, all supernatural phenomena are believed to be manifestations of a single eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent being (Christianity)
The two types of plant cultivation found in nonindustrial societies are...
Horticulture and agriculture - Both differ from the commercially oriented farming systems of industrial nations
Cultivation Continuum:
Horticulture systems stand at one end -- the "low-labor, shifting-plot" end and agriculturalists are at the other-- the "labor intensive, permanent-plot" end
The Online Marriage Market
Huge differences in the marriage markets of industrial VS nonindustrial societies - In the latter, potential spouses may be limited to certain cousins or members of a specific descent group - Often marriages are arranged by relatives Potential mates still meet in person in modern nations - An Oxford study found that people still seek and find partners in the old, familiar places, even as they look online - Also found that older people were more likely than younger people to use online dating - The internet reconfigures people in general - The study found that most people reported making friends or work connections rather than finding romantic partners People who know people who date online are more likely to do it themselves
Work and Family: Reality and Stereotypes
Ideas about how to balance work and family obligations have changed considerably in recent years - BOTH men and women question the idea that the man should be the breadwinner while the woman assumes domestic responsibilities - American fathers spend more time on child care today than they did in the past
As women increasingly work outside the home ->
Ideas about the gender roles of males and females have changed
Ethnicity:
Identification with, and feeling part of, an ethnic group and exclusion from certain other groups because of this affiliation - Ethnic feelings and associated behavior may vary in intensity within ethnic groups and countries and over time - May reflect political change or individual life-cycle changes
Levirate:
If the husband dies, the widow may marry his brother - The implications of the levirate vary with age - In African societies, the widow and her new husband rarely live together - Furthermore, widows do not automatically marry the husband's brother just because they are allowed to (the prefer to make other arrangements)
Secular Rituals
If we define religion with reference to the sacred or supernatural beings, how do we classify ritual-like behaviors that occur in secular contexts? - Some anthropologist believe there are both sacred and secular rituals - Secular rituals include formal, invariant, stereotyped, earnest, repetitive behavior and rites of passage that take place in a nonreligious settings If the distinction between the supernatural and the natural is not consistently made in a society, how can we tell what is religion and what is not? And the third problem with the definition given in the beginning -> the behavior considered appropriate for religious occasions varies from culture to culture
Agriculture:
Intensive, continuous cultivation
Coexistence of Exchange Principles
In North America, the market principle governs most exchanges, from the sale of the means of production to the sale of consumer goods - We also have redistribution (some of our tax money comes back to us) - We also have reciprocal exchanges - Precise balancing of reciprocity
Gender in Industrial Societies
The economic roles of men and women have changed and changed again over the course of American history
How do Northerns deal with this?
In cold northern areas, light skin color maximizes the absorption of the UV radiation and the manufacture of vitamin D by the few parts of the body that are exposed to direct sunlight - Natives from Alaska are not pale as ghosts (which would maximize their UV absorption and vitamin D) - This is true because they have no inhabited this region very long - As well, their traditional diet, which is rich in fish oils, supplies sufficient vitamin D
Michelle Rosaldo
In her study of the Ilongots of northern Luzon in the philippines, Rosaldo descrived gender differences related to the positive cultural value placed n adventure, travel, and knowledge of the external world - More often than women, men visited distant places (received acclaim as a result) Must distinguish b/w prestige systems and actual power - High male prestige does not necessarily entail economic or political power held by men over their families
Alienation in Industrial Economies
In industrial societies work and the workplace are separated from one's social essence - Labor becomes a thing to be paid for, bought, and sold-- and from which the boss can generate an individual profit - Furthermore, they do not usually work with their relatives + neighbors - If coworkers are friends, the personal relationship often develops out of their common employment rather than a previous social tie In nonindustrial societies, an individual who makes something can use or dispose of it as he or she sees fit - Economy is not a separate entity but it is embedded in the society
Means of Production
In nonindustrial societies the relationship between the worker and the means of production is more intimate than it is in industrial nations
Exogamy and Incest
In nonindustrial societies, a person's social world includes two main categories... friends and strangers
Same-Sex Marriage
In situations in which women, such as prominent market women in West Africa, are able to amass property and other forms of wealth, they may take a wife - Such marriages allow the prominent woman to strengthen her social status and the economic importance of her household Sometimes, when same-sex marriage is allowed, one of the partners is of the same biological sex as the spouse but is considered to belong to a different, socially constructed gender - Several Native American groups had figures known as "Two-Spirit", representing a gender in addition to male or female As of this writing, same-sex marriage is legal in 23 countries
Weapons of the Weak
In the public, the oppressed may seem to accept their own domination, even when they are questioning it in private
Adaptive Strategies
In today's globalizing world, communities and societies are being incorporated, at an accelerating rate, into larger systems - The first major acceleration 10,000-12,000 years ago -> Food Production
The Market Principle
In today's world capitalist economy, the Market Principle dominates - Governs the distribution of the means of production-- land, labor, natural resources, technology, knowledge, and capital - Items are bough and sold, using money, with an eye to maximizing profit, and value is determined by the Law of supply and demand -- things cost more the scarcer they are and the more people want them - So, bargaining is characteristic of market-principle exchanges
Polygyny:
In which a man has more than one wife
Means/Factors of Production:
Include land (territory), technology, and the available labor supply
Several Native American tribes ->
Included gender-variant individuals, described by the term "Two-Spirit" - Depending on the society, as many as four genders might be recognized: feminine women, masculine women, feminine men, and masculine men - Zuni Two-Spirit- Male who adopted social roles traditionally assigned to women and, through performance of a third gender, contributed to the social and spiritual well-being of the community - Some Balkan societies included "Sworn Virgins" - born females who assumed male gender roles and activities to meet societal needs when there was a shortage of men - Among the Gheg tribes of North Albania, "Virginal Transvesties"- Biologically female, but locals considered them "honorary men" - In Tonga, the term Fakaleitis describes males who behave as women - Similarly are Samoan fa'afafine and Hawaiian mahu are men who adopt feminine attributes, behaviors, and visual markers
Transgener is a social category that...
Includes individuals who may or may not contrast biologically with ordinary males and females Within the transgender category, intersex people usually contrast biolgoically with ordinary males and females, but transgender also includes people whose gender ID has no apparent biological roots - Intersex refers to biology, while transgender refers to an ID that is socially constructed and individually performed
Descent Group:
Includes people who share common ancestry-- they descend from the same ancestors - Usually spread out among several villages Are permanent, unlike nuclear families (AKA they last for generations)
Political Regulation:
Includes such processes as decision making, dispute management, and conduct resolution
Asexuality
Indifference toward or lack of attraction to either sex, also is a sexual orientation - All of these forms are found throughout the world - BUT each type of desire and experience holds different meanings for individuals and groups
Race and Ethnicity
The words race and ethnicity are frequently confused
Hispanic
Is a category based mainly on language
Matriarchy
Is matriarchy a political system rules by women? Or does it refer to a political system in which women play a much more prominent role than men?
Polyandry
Is rare and practiced under very specific conditions - Most of the world's polyandrous peoples live in South Asia - In some of these areas, polyandry is a cultural adaptation to mobility associated with customary male travel for trade, commerce, and military operations - Ensures there will be at least one man at home to accomplish male activities - It is effective when resources are scarce (Brothers with limited resources pool their resources) - It also restricts the number of wives + heirs (less competition)
Rule of Descent:
It assigns social ID on the basis of ancestry
The four labels in Service's typology are too simple to account for the full range of political diversity + complexity BUT...
It does highlight significant contrasts in political organization (esp. between state and non state)
Durable Alliances
It is possible to exemplify the group-alliance mature of marriage by examining another common practice-- continuation of marital alliances when one spouse dies
Not Us: Race in Japan
Japan presents itself and is commonly viewed as a nation that is homogenous in race, ethnicity, language, and culture - Although it is less diverse than most nations, it does contain significant minority groups - Japanese define themselves by opposition to others - The "not us" should stay that way; assimilation generally is discouraged - Cultural mechanisms, especialy residential segreagtion and taboos on "interracial" marriage, work to keep minorities "in their place"
XXY ->
Klinefelter Syndrome is the most common of these chromosomal combinations - Main symptoms: small testicles and reduced fertility
In archaic states-- for the first time in human history-- there were contrasts in wealth, power, and prestige between entire groups
Led to the Superordinate and Subordinate
Labor, Tools, and Specialization
Like land, the labor supply is a means of production - In nonindustrial societies, access to both land and labor comes through social links such as kinship, marriage, and descent - Manufacturing is often linked to age and gender - Most people of a particular age and gender share the technical knowledge associated with that age and gender - Neither technology nor technical knowledge is very specialized - Some tribal societies, however, do promote specialization - Craft specialization reflects the social and political environment rather than the natural environment - Such specialization promotes trade, which is the first step in creating an alliance with enemy villages
Two types of descent groups...
Lineages and clans! Clans tend to be larger than lineages and can include lineages Many societies have both lineages and clans - When this is true, the clan will have more members and cover a larger geographic area than its component lineages do
Martin and Voorhies (1975)
Link the decline of matriliny and the spread of the Patrilineal-Patrilocal Complex (consisting of patrilineality, patrilocality, warfare, and male supremacy) to pressure of resources - Faced with scarce resources, patrilineal-patrilocal cultivators often raid other villages (this warfare favors patrilocality and patriliny)
Max Weber
Linked the spread of capitalism to the values preached by early protestant leaders - More financially successful than Catholics due to their values.... - Protestants= more entrepreneurial and future-oriented than Catholics - Placed premium on hard work, an ascetic life, and profit seeking - Saw success on Earth as a sign of divine favor + probable salvation - He also argues that business organization required the removal of production from the home - Protestantism made such a separation possible by emphasizing individualism - Today, people of many religions are successful capitalists
Elman Service
Listed four types/levels of political organizations: band, tribe, chiefdom, and state - Today, none of the first 3 types can be studied as self-contained form of political organization, because they now exist within the context of nation-states + are subject to state control There is archaeological evidence for early bands, tribes, and chiefdoms, but anthropologists have never been able to observe them outside of state influence
Masai
Live in a tribal society - Sociopolitical organization is based on descent groups + pantribal sodalities - Other pastoralists, however, have chiefs and live in nation-states - The scope of political authority among pastoralists expands considerably as regulatory problems increase in densely populated regions
Hijras
Live in northern India, are culturally defines as "neither men nor women" or as men who become women - ID with the Indian mother doffess and are believed to channel her power - They are known for their ritualized performances at births and marriages, conferring the mother goddess's blessing on the child - Some now engage in prostitution - Hijra social movements have campaigned for recognition as a third gender
The Yanomami
Live in southern Venezuela and the adjacent part of Brazil - Horticulturalists who also hunt and gather - Have more social groups than exist in a foraging society (families, villages, and descent groups) - Their descent groups are Patrilineal- Ancestry is traced back through males only and Exogamous- People must marry outside their own descent group - However, branches of two different descent groups may life in the same village and intermarry - With its many villages and descent groups, their sociopolitical organization is more complicated than that of a band-organized society - Face more problems in regulating relations between groups and individuals - They are not isolated from outside events
The Nayars traditional kinship unit was the matrilineal (descent traced only through females)
Lived in matrilineal extended family compounds called tarawads - Headed by the senior woman and assisted by her brother Traditional Nayar marriage was a formality - They would go through the marriage ceremony, spend a few days at the ladies tarawad, and then he would return to his - Nayar men belonged to a warrior class, who left home regularly for military expeditions, returning permanently to their tarawad on retirement - SO, Nayar women could have multiple sexual partners - Children were a part of their mother's taraward (were not considred members of their father's tarawad)
Subordinate:
Lower or underprivileged stratum was limited by the privileged group
Shame and Gossip
Many anthropologists have noted the importance of "informal" processes of social control, such as fear, stigma, shame, and gossip, especially in small-scale societies - Gossip + shame can function as effective processes of social control when a direct/formal sanction is risky or impossible
Polygyny
Many cultures approve of a man's having more than one wife - However, even when polygyny is allowed, most men are monogamous
Domesticated Animals
Many cultures use animals as means of production- for transport, as cultivating machines, and for their manure (manure can be used to fertilize plots)
Although most recruits to ISIS are Muslims...
Many have little prior knowledge of the religous teachings of Islam - They wish to pursue a thrilling cause-- one that promises glory, esteem, respect, and remembrance
The "Big Man"
Many societies of the South Pacific, particularly on the Melanesian Islands and in papua New Guinea, had a kind of political leader that we call the big man
Sororate:
Marriage is a type of marriage in which a husband engages in marriage or sexual relations with the sister of his wife, usually after the death of his wife - If there are no sisters available, another woman from her group may be available - Exists in both matrilineal and patrilineal societies
Defining Marriage
Marriage is difficult to define because of the varied forms it can take in different societies - In many societies, marriage unites more than two spouses - Plural Marriages - Some societies recognize various kinds of same-sex marriages - EX) In South Sudan, a Nuer woman could take a wife if her father had no sons - ALSO, if people do not have children, are they actually married according to some definitions of marriage?
Divorce
Marriages that are political alliances between groups are more difficult to dissolve than marriages that are more individual affairs - A big lobola gift may reduce the divorce rate - Replacement marriages also work to preserve group alliances Divorce tends to be more common in matrilineal societies - High divorce rates are correlated with a secure female economic position - Divorce is more difficult in a patrilineal society - woman residing patrilocally might be reluctant to leave him - Also, if she did leave him, her children would stay with the father (strong impediment to divorce)
Matrilocality:
Married couples live in the wife's mother's community, and their children grow up in their mother's village
Patrilocality:
Married couples reside in the husband's father's community, so that the children will grow up in their father's village
All societies have ____
Medico-magico religious specialists - Modern societies can support both priesthoods and health care professionals - Lacking the resources for such specialization, foraging societies typically have only part-time specialists, who often have both religious and healing roles - Shaman - Societies with productive economies (based on agriculture and trade) and large, dense populations (nation-states) can support full-time religious specialists - Two words to describe religions of such stratified societies... - Ecclesiastical - Olympian
Prejudice and Discrimination
Members of an ethnic group may be the targets of prejudice (negative attitudes and judgments) or discrimination (punitive action)
Foraging Bands
Modern foragers live in nation-states and an interlinked world - All foragers now trade with food producers - Furthermore, most rely on governments and missionaries for at least part of what they consume
Hypodescent: Race in the United States
Most Americans acquire their racial ID at birth, but race is not based on biology or on simple ancestry - Ex) A mixed child - 50 percent of the child's genes come from each parent, however, we still classify the child as black - In some states, anyone known to have any Black ancestor, no matter how remote, is classified as a member of the Black race
The Social Construction of Race
Most Americans continue to believe (incorrectly) that their population includes biologically based races to which various labels apply - Such racial terms include white, black, yellow, red, etc. - We know, however, that races, while assumed to have a biological basis, actually are socially constructed in particular societies
Plural Marriages
Most nonindustrial food-producing societies, unlike most industrial nations, allow Plural Marriages/Polygamy There are two variations... 1. Polygyny 2. Polyandry
Nuclear Families and Extended Families
Most people belong to at least two nuclear families at different times in their lives 1) They are born into a family consisting of their parents and siblings 2) At adulthood, they may establish a nuclear family that includes their spouse and their children - Some establish more than one family through successive marriages
Motivations
Motivations vary from society to society, and people often lack freedom of choice in allocating their resources
Sectarian Violence
Much of the ethnic unrest in today's world has a religious component Ex) The Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein favored his wn Sunni Muslim sect while fostering discrimination against others (Shiites and Kurds)
Expressions of Religion
No one knows when religion began - There are suggestions of religion in Neandertal burials and on European cave walls, where painted stick figures may represent Shamans - Regardless, ant statement about when, where, why, or how religion arose can only be speculative - These speculations have revealed important functions and effects of religious behavior
Two patterns occur with pastoralism
Nomadism and transhumance - Both are based on the fact that herds must move to use pasture available in particular places in different seasons
Horticulture:
Non-intensive, shifting cultivation
Changes in North American Kinship
Nuclear families account for less than 20% of American households (even though, it is still the ideal) There are several reasons for this changing household composition... - Women increasingly have joined men in the cash workforce (women can now delay or fogo marriage) - Job demands compete with romantic attachments - Increasing number of single-parent families (83% are single mothers BTW) - Household size is declining in industrial nations - Americans maintain social lives through school, work, friendship, sports, clubs, religion, etc.
How Anthropologist View Families and Kinship
Nuclear family (parents and their children) accounts for less than ⅕ of American households - American families are very diverse - Although American families are diverse, other cultures offer family alternatives that Americans might have a hard time understanding - There is a common American view that kinship is, and should be, biological - Seen when adopted children seek out their biological parents - This emphasis is seen in the recent proliferation of DNA testing - BUT, kinship and biology do not always converge, nor do they need to
Redistribution:
Occurs when products, such as a portion of the annual harvest, move from the local level to a center, from which they eventually flow back out - Typically occurs in societies that have chiefs - To reach the center, where they will be stored, products often move through a hierarchy of officials - Along the way, those officials may consume some but not all of the products - After reaching the center, the flow of goods eventually will reverse direction
Situational Negotiation of Social ID
One ID is used in certain settings, another in different ones - Ex) Members of an ethnic group may shift their ethnic ID - Hispanics may use different ethnic labels (Cuban or Latino) to describe themselves depending on the context
Families
One kind of kin group that is widespread is the nuclear family, consisting of parents and children, who typically live in the same household - Other families are extended, including three or more generations - Members of an extended family do not necessarily live together
Emile Durkheim
One of the founders of the anthropology of religion, focused on the distinction between the sacred (the domain of religion) and the profane (the everyday world) - Like the supernatural for Wallace, Durkheim's "sacred" was a domain set off from the ordinary, or the mundane - For Durkehim, although every society recognized a sacred domain - He believed that Native Australian societies had retained the most elementary, or basic, forms of religion - Their most sacred items were real-world entities that had acquired religious meaning and became sacred objects (Toteism) - He focused on groups of people (congregants) who gather together for worship - Congregants who worship together share certain beliefs - He stressed the collective, social, and shared nature of religion; the meanings it embodies; and the emotions it generates - He highlighted religious effervescence
Expanded Family Household:
One that includes a group of relatives other than, or in addition to, a married couple and their children Takes various forms... - ____ = When the expanded household includes three or more generations - Collateral Household= Includes siblings and their spouses and children - Matrifocal Household= Headed by a women and includes other adult relatives and children
Internet dating is "Experience Technology"
One's attitudes about that technology reflect one's experiences with it
Sacred values are fought most successfully with...
Other sacred values, or by undermining the social networks that are held together by those values - We can not defeat ISIS militarily or by trying to buy off its members
Sex and Gender
Our attributed are determined both by our genes and by our environment during growth and development The chromosomal difference b/w men and women (Women= XX and Men= XY) is expressed in hormonal and physiological contrasts
Classical Economy Theory assumes...
Our want infinite while our means are limited (so, people must make choices about how to use their scarce resources-- their time, labor, money, and capital) - Western economists assume that when confronted with choices and decisions, people tend to make the one that maximizes profit - However, economists now recognize that individuals may be motivated by many other goals depending on the society and the situation
Marriage: A Group Affair
Outside industrial societies, marriage often is more a relationship between groups than one between individuals - In our society, we think of marriage as an individual matter (the idea of romantic love symbolizes this individual relationship) - In nonindustrial societies, people do not just take a spouse; they assume obligations to a group of in-laws
Gender Stereotypes:
Oversimplified but strongly held ideas about the characteristics of males and females
Transhumance:
Part of the group moves with the herds but most people stay in the home village - Many examples from Europe and Africa
These groups show that...
Pastoralism is often just one among many specialized economic activities within a nation-state - As part of a larger whole, pastoral tribes are continually pitted against other ethnic groups - Within the context of the modern nation-state, that government becomes a final authority (State organizations arose not just to manage agricultural economies but also to regulate the activities of ethnic groups)
Peter Berger
Pentecostalism may be the fastest-growing religion in human history + focuses on its social dimensions to explain why - Promotes strong communities while offering practical and psychological support to people whose circumstances are changing - Thinks that Pentecostals include both types-- Weberian Protestants and people who believe magic and ritual will bring them good fortune
Patrilineal Descent:
People automatically have lifetime membership in their father's group - The children of the group's men join the group, but the children of the group's women are excluded
Ascribed:
People have limited choice about occupying them - Ex) Age + race + gender
Matrilineal Descent:
People join the mother's group automatically @ birth and stay members throughout - Matrilineal and patrilineal descent are types of Unilineal Descent - Patrilineal descent is much more common - Members of any descent group believe that they descent from the same Apical Ancestor (the person that stands at the apex, or top, of their common genealogy)
Refugees:
People who have been forced (involuntary refugees) or who have chosen (voluntary refugees) to flee a country, to escape persecution or war - A government policy of ethnic expulsion is only one source of refugees - Another example is civil wars
Pastoralists:
People whose activities focus on such domesticated animals as cattle, sheep, goats, camels, yak, and reindeer (AKA Herders) - Live in North + sub-saharan Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia - East African pastoralists live in symbiosis with their herds - Want to protect their animals in order to ensure their reproduction in return for food and other products (leather) - Pastoralists typically use their herds for food (consume their meat, blood, and milk, from which they make yogurt, butter, and cheese) - They supplement their diet by hunting, gathering, fishing, cultivating, or trading Before the Industrial Revolution, pastoralism was confined totally to the Old World - Just recently the Navajo of the southwestern US developed a pastoral economy based on sheep - They are the major pastoral population in the Western hemisphere
Office:
Permanent position, which must be refilled when it is vacated by death or retirement
Ecclesiastical-
Pertaining to an established church and its hierarchy of officials
When religions meet, they can coexist peacefully, or their differences can be a basis for enmity and disharmony
Political leaders have used religion to promote and justify their views - One way is by persuasion and another is by hatred or fear - Ex) Witch hunts can be powerful because no one wants to seem deviant - Witchcraft beliefs are common in village and peasant societies, where people live close together and have limited mobility - These people have an "Image of Limited Good"- An idea that resources are limited, so that one person can profit disproportionately only at the expense of others
Strangers =
Potential enemies - Marriage is one of the primary ways of converting strangers into friends - Exogamy
The earliest cultivators were...
Rainfall-dependent horticulturalists - In many cases, horticultural is still the primary form of cultivation in parts of Africa, Southeast Asia, the Pacific islands, Mexico, Central America, and the South American tropical forest
Social Control:
Refers to "those fields of social system (beliefs, practices, and institutions) that are most actively involved in the maintenance of any norms and the regulation of any conflict - Norms- Cultural standards or guidelines that enable individuals to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate behavior
Chiefdom:
Refers to a form of sociopolitical organization intermediate between the tribe and the state - Social relations based primarily on kinship, marriage, descent, age, generation, and gender - Although they are kin-based, they feature Differential Access- To resources (some people have more wealth, prestige, and power than others do) and a permanent political structure
Phenotype:
Refers to an organism's evident traits
Food Production:
Refers to human control over the reproduction of plants and animals, and it contrasts with the foraging economies that preceded it and still persist in some parts of the world - Foragers collect what nature has to offer (so, they hunt + gather, but they do not plant) - They do not domesticate animals - Only food producers select and breed for desirable traits in plants and animals - People rather than nature, become selective agents (human selection replaces natural selection) FP led to accelerated human population growth and led to the formation of larger + more powerful social and political systems
Discrimination:
Refers to policies and practices that harm a group and its members - May be legally sanctioned (De Jure= Part of the law) OR it may be de facto (practiced, but not legally sanctioned)
The Feminization of Poverty
Refers to the increasing representation of women (and their children) among America's poorest people - The % of single-parent households has been increasing worldwide - GloBally, households headed by women tend to be poorer than those headed by men One way to improve the situation of poor women is to encourage them to organize - Membership in a group can help women gain confidence and mobilize resources
Cultural Colonialism:
Refers to the internal domination by one group and its culture or ideology over others - The dominant culture makes itself the official culture - This is reflected in schools, the media, and public interaction - Socialist Internationalism
Antimodernism
Rejection of the modern in favor of what is perceived as an earlier, purer, and better way of life - First arose out of disillusionment with the Industrial Revolution + its developments in science, technology, and consumption patterns - Think that technology should have lower priority than religious and cultural values
Uncertainty, Anxiety, Solace
Religion and magic serve emotional needs as well as cognitive (explanatory) ones - Help people face death and endure life crises (when outcomes are beyond human control) - Despite our improving technical skills, we still cannot control every outcome, so magic persists - SO, most of us still draw on magic + ritual in situations of uncertainty (before a test or plane ride) - Magic and rituals reduce psychological stress, creating an illusion of magical control when real control is lacking
Religion and Change
Religion helps maintain social order
Social Control
Religion helps people cope with uncertainty, adversity, fear, and tragedy - If the faithful truly internalize a system of religious rewards and punishments, their religion becomes a powerful influence on their attitudes and behavior, as well as what they teach their children - Many people engage in religious activity because it works for them - Religion can work by getting inside people and mobilizing their emotions - The power of religion than affects action
Kinds of Religion
Religions exist in particular societies, and cultural differences show up systematically in religious beliefs and practices
To ensure proper behavior ->
Religions offer rewards and punishments - Typically the more formal, organized ones (typically found in state societies) often prescribe a code of ethics
Rites of Passage:
Rituals associated with the transition from one place, or stage of life, to another - Can be individual or collective - Contemporary rituals include confirmations, baptisms, bar and bat mitzvahs, initiations, weddings, etc. - Involve changes in social status - All rites of passage have three phases: separation, liminality, and incorporation 1. 1st phase- people withdraw from ordinary society 2. 3rd phase- they reenter, having completed a ritual that changes their status Not all collective rituals are rites of passage - Rites of Intensification
Thanks to automation, jobs have become less demanding in terms of physical labor
SO, the lesser average strength of women are no longer significant - We also have simply abandoned heavy-goods manufacture Another important change is the increasing levels of education + levels of professional employment among women - In the USA today, more women than men attend + graduate college - Female college graduates are also just as likely to be doctors, dentists, lawyers, etc.
Taboo:
Set apart as sacred and off-limits to ordinary people
Incest:
Sexual contact with a relative - Because culture defines kin, incest differs
The Igbo Women's War
Shame and ridicule-- used by women and against men-- played a key role in a decisive protest movement that took place in southeastern Nigeria in the late 1929 - At least 25,000 Igbo women joined protesters against British officials, their agents, and their colonial policies - Used a traditional practice of censoring and shaming men through all-night song and dance ridicule - Also followed the chiefs' every move, forcing the men to pay attention by invaid their space BACK STORY -> In 1914, the British had implemented a policy of indirect rule by appointing local Nigerian men as their agents ("Warrant Chiefs") - These chiefs became increasingly oppressive, seizing property, imposing arbitrary regulations, and imprisoning people with criticized them - Announced plans to impose taxes on Igbo women - Women were key suppliers of food for Nigeria + they feared being forced out of business by the new tax The protests were effective - The tax was abandoned + many warrant chiefs resigned, some to be replaced by women - Other women were placed to the Native courts as judges This women's war inspired many other protests in regions all over Africa
Ethnic Group:
Share certain beliefs, values, habits, customs, and norms because of their common background - Define themselves as different because of their cultural features - Markers of an ethnic group may include a collective name, belief in common descent, a sense of solidarity, and an association with a specific territory
New and Alternative Religious Movements
Significant growth in the number of Americans who affiliate with no organized religion (seen in USA, Canada, Western Europe, China, and Japan) - In addition to increasing nonaffiliation, contemporary industrial societies also feature new religious trends and forms of spiritualism - Draws on and blends cultural elements - Advocates change through individual personal transformation Many contemporary nations contain unofficial religions - "Yoruba" a term applied to perhaps 15 million adherents in Africa + millions of practitioners of Syncretic- Blended religions in the Western hemisphere - Includes Santeria, Candomble, + Vodoun - Has its roots in precolonial nation-states of West Africa - It remains an identifiable religion today, despite suppression
What are some characteristics of hunter-gathers nationwide?
Small social groups, mobile settlement patterns, sharing of resources, immediate food consumption, egalitarianism, and decision making by mutual consent
Band:
Small, kin-based group found among foragers
Peasants:
Small-scale farmers who live in state-organized societies and have rent fund obligations - They produce to feed themselves, to sell their produce, and to pay rent - All peasants have two things in common... 1. They live in state-organized societies 2. They produce food without the elaborate technology--chemical fertilizes, tractors, airplanes to spray crops, and so on-- of modern farming or agribusiness - Besides paying rent to landlords, peasants must satisfy government obligations, paying taxes in the form of money, produce, or labor - Often becomes their foremost and unavoidable duty - Sometimes their diets suffer as a result
Status Systems
Social Status in chiefdoms= determined on seniority of descent - Polynesian chiefs kept extremely long genealogies - All people in the chiefdom were thought to be related to each other - Degrees of seniority were calculated so on some islands that there was as many ranks as people - However, even the lowest-ranking man of the woman in a chiefdom was still the chief's relative - It was difficult to draw a line between elites and common people - Compared with chiefdoms, archaic states drew a much firmer line between elites and masses - Kinship ties did not extend from the nobles to the commoners because of Stratum Endogamy- Marriage within one's own group (Commoners married elites and VV) - In chiefdoms as in states, some people had more prestige, wealth, and power than others did - These elites controlled strategic resources (land and water)
Revitalization Movements:
Social movements that occur in times of change, in which religious leaders emerge and undertake to alter or revitalize a society - Ex) Christianity originated as a revitalization movement - Jesus was one of several prophets who preached new religious doctrines while the Middle East was under Roman rule Cargo Cults
State Systems
States are autonomous political units with social strata and a formal government - Tend to be large and populous, and certain systems and subsystems with specialized functions are found in all states. They include the following... - Population Control: Fixing of boundaries, border control, establishment of citizenship categories, and censusing - Judiciary: Laws, legal procedure, and judges - Enforcement: Permanent military and police forces - Fiscal Support: Taxation - These subsystems were integrated by a ruling system or government composed of civil, military, and religious officials
Achieved Statuses:
Statuses that come through choices, actions, efforts, talents, or accomplishments and may be positive or negative - Ex) Doctor
Domestic-Public Dichotomy (AKA the private-public contrast):
Strong differentiation between the home and the outside world - Often when domestic and public spheres are separated, public activities have greater prestige than domestic ones do - Can promote gender stratification, because men are more likely to be active in the public domain than women
Many indigenous groups have done a reasonable job of managing their resources and preserving their ecosystems
Such societies had traditional ways of categorizing resources - Increasingly, however, these traditional management systems have been challenged by national and international incentives to exploit and degrade the environment
Magic:
Supernatural techniques intended to accomplish specific goals - Techniques include actions, offerings, spells, formulas, and incantations used with deities or with impersonal forces - Magicians may employ imitative magic (produce a desired effect by imitating it) - Ex) Pins in voodoo dolls - With contagious magic, whatever is done to an object is believed to affect a person who has contact with it Magic exists in societies with diverse religious beliefs
Socialist Internationalism
Technique in cultural colonialism that aims to flood ethnic areas with members of the dominant ethnic group
American economists assume...
That people make decisions rationally, guided by the profit motive - Although anthropologists know that the profit motive is not universal, the assumption that individuals try to maximize profits is basic to capitalism + Western economic theory
The Western Hemisphere also had recent foragers ->
The Eskimos of Alaska and Canada (they now use modern technology -> rifles + snowmobiles) The native populations of the North Pacific Coast of North America The native populations of inland subarctic Canada and the Great Lakes - For many Native Americans, fishing, hunting, and gathering remain important subsistence activities Coastal foragers in Patagonia Foragers in the grassy plains of Argentina, southern Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay
South Asia is home to more hunter-gatherers than any other world area ->
The Hill pharia and the Yanadi are the largest contemporary South Asian foraging populations (about 20,000 members each) - Other ethnic groups are highly endangered (fewer than 350 members) - South Asian foraging societies have lost many of their natural resources to deforestation + spreading farming populations BUT STILL NOT CONVERTED OVER. DEDICATION. South Asian foragers focus on hunting medium-sized prey Some of the best-known recent foragers are the Aborigines of Australia
The San
The San of Bostwana have been affected by government politics that relocated them after converting their ancestral lands into wildlife reserve - San speakers have been influenced by Bantu speakers (farmers and herders) + by Europeans - Today, they are rural underclass in a larger political and economic system dominated by Europeans and Bantu food producers - Many San tend cattle for wealthier Bantu rather than foraging independently - They also have their own domesticate cattle -> shows how they are moving away from a foraging lifestyle - Sedentim has increased substantially in recent years, some San groups (along rivers) have been sedentary for generations - To the extent that foraging continues to be their subsistence base, groups like the San an illustrate links between a foraging economy and other aspects of life in bands - Social, political, and gender equality
The Backlash to Multiculturalism
The backlash began soon after Obama's election, culminating in Trump's election as president in 2016 - The period between 2008-2010 saw the growth of the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party and a dramatic reduction in the power of the Democrats after the 2010 election - One of the rallying cries of Tea Party voters has been to "take our country back" - AKA how Trump got his supporters -> he tokened the phrase "Make American Great Again" - Also, prominent in his campaign was open ethno-nationalism - He advocated deportation of undocumented immigrants - Proposed a temporary ban on admission of Muslims (response to a shooting by jihadist terrioists) - Trump also railed against "political correctness" which he saw as excessive caution about using language and labels that might offend particular groups
Prestige:
The basis of social status-- refers to esteem, respect, or approval for acts, deeds or qualities considered exemplary
Monotheism:
The belief in a single, all-powerful deity (came after P)
Polytheism:
The belief in multiple gods
"Intrinsic Racism"
The belief that a perceived racial difference is a sufficient reason to value one person less than another - The valued group is majority "pure" Japanese, who are believed to share "the same blood"
Effervescence
The bubbling up of collective emotional intensity generated by worship
Something like hypodescent also operates in Japan
The children of mixed marriages between majority Japanese and others may not get the same "racial" label as their minority parent, but they are still stigmatized for their non-Japanese ancestry Japanese culture regards certain ethnic groups as having a biological basis, when there is no evidence that they do - The burakumin - Physically and genetically indistinguishable from other Japanese - A deceptive marriage can end in divorce if a burakumin ID is discovered - Burakumin are perceived as standing apart from majority Japanese based on their ancestry (and thus, it is assumed, their "blood" or genetics) - They face discrimination - Less likely to attend highschool and college - When they attend the same schools as Japanese, the Japanese may refuse to eat with them because they are rumored to be "dirty" - Traditionally, they have performed "unclean jobs" -> working with animal products - Generally, they are more likely to do manual labor overall The burakumin are internally stratified (AKA there are class contrasts within the group) - People who are successful in those job occupations (that are reserved for Burakumins) can be wealthy Discrimination against them is similar to the discrimination that Blacks have experienced in the USA In applying for university admission or a job and in dealing with the government, Japanese must list their address, which becomes part of a household or family registry - Schools and companies use this information to discriminate Majority Japanese also limit "race" mixture by hiring marriage mediators to check out the family histories of prospective spouses
Stratification:
The creation of separate social strata and its emergence signified the transition from chiefdom to state
"Hidden Transcript"
The critique of the power structure that goes on out of sight of those who hold power - Resistance often is seething beneath the surface - Sometimes, the hidden transcript may include active resistance, but it is individual and disguised rather than collective and defiant - Hidden transcripts tend to be expressed publicly at certain times (festivals) and in certain places (markets) - Carnavals celebrate freedom through immodesty, dancing, gluttony, and sexuality
Gender
The cultural construction of whether one is female, male, or something else
Exogamy:
The custom and practice of seeking a mate outside one's own group, has adaptive value, because it links people into a wider social network that nurtures, helps, and protects them in times of need - Incest restricyions reinforce exogamy - Most societies discourage sexual contact involving close relatives (esp. Within the nuclear family) - Incest
Genocide:
The deliberate elimination of a group through mass murder
Ethnocide:
The deliberate suppression or destruction of an ethnic culture by dominant group - One way of implementing a policy of ethnocide is through forced assimilation - Many countries have banned the language and customs of an ethnic group
Sexual Dimorphism:
The differences in male and female biology besides the contrasts in breasts and genitals - They differ in primary (genitalia and reproductive organs) and secondary (breasts, voice, hair) sexual characteristics - Also differ in weight, height, strength, longevity, etc. - Women tend to live longer + have greater endurance - Men tend to be taller + weigh more - OFC there is a lot of overlap (there has been a reduction in sexual dimorphism during human evolution)
Pastoral Nomadism:
The entire group moves with the animals throughout the year - Many examples in the Middle East and North Africa During their treks, pastoral nomads trade for crops and other products with more sedentary people - Transhumants do not have to trade for crops b/c only part of their population accompanies the herds, they can maintain year-round villages and grow their own crops
Family of Orientation:
The family in which one is born and grows up VS Family of Procreation
Nationalism:
The feeling of belonging to a nation
Chiefdoms
The first chiefdoms arrived thousands of years before the first states - Chiefdoms= a transitional form of organization that emerged during the evolution of tribes into states - State formation began in Mesopotamia (currently Iran and Iraq) then Egypt, then Pakistan and Indian, and then Northern China - A few thousand years later, states arose in two parts of the Western Hemisphere Mesoamerica and the Central Andes - Archaic/Nonindustrial- Early states - The chiefdom + the state= Ideal Types (Labels that make social contrasts seem sharper than they really are) - In reality, there is a continuum from tribe to chiefdom to state
Colonialism:
The foreign domination of a territory-- established a series of multribial and multiethnic states - The new national boundaries that were created under colonialism often corresponded poorly with preexisting cultural divisions - However, colonial institutions also helped forge new IDs that extended beyond nations and nationalities - Ex) Negritude - Can be traced to the association and common experience in colonial times of youths
Authority:
The formal, socially approved use of power
Industrialism and Family Organization
The geographic mobility associated with industrialism works to fragment kinship groups larger than the nuclear family - Americans move to places where there are jobs - Neolocality
A Case of Industrial Alienation
The government of Malaysia has promoted export-oriented industry, allowing transnational companies to install manufacturing operations in rural Malaysia - In search of cheaper labor, corporations have moved labor-intensive factories to developing countries - Female factory workers (who usually come from rural families) have to cope with rigid work routines and constant supervision by men - The discipline that factories enforce is taught in local schools - Labor in these factories illustrates the separation of intellectual and manual activity-- the alienation that Karl Marx considered the defining feature of industrial work - Factory work does not bring substantial financial reward - Young women usually work just a few years, but production quotas, three daily shifts, overtime, and surveillance take a toll on their mental and physical health One response to factory relations of production has been spirit possession (factory women are possessed by spirits) - The women's unconscious protests against labor discipline and male control - Sometimes possession takes the form of mass hysteria - To deal with possession, factories employ local medicine men, who sacrifice chickens and goats to fend off the spirits
Agriculture
The greater labor demands associated with agriculture, as compared with horticulture, reflect the former's use of domesticated animals, irrigation, or terracing
Religious Radicalization Today
The growth of such extremist groups is part of a process of political globalization that has accompanied economic globalization - Reflects the need, in a fragmented world, for some form of attachment to a larger community - Displaced and alienated people feel this way Terrorists are "devoted actors"
In many societies with patrilineal descent, it is customary for...
The husband's group to present a substantial gift to his bride's group - Ex) The BaThonga and Mozambique call such a gift a Lobola - This gift compensates the bride's group for the loss of her companionship + labor - More important, it makes the children bon to the woman full members of her husband's descent group (in matrilineal societies, children are members of the mother's group, and there is no reason for a lobola-like gift) - Lobola-like gifts exist in many more cultures than dowry does, but the nature and quantity of transferred items differ
Ethno-nationalism
The idea of an association between ethnicity and the right to rule the United States
Anti-Ethnic Discrimination
The most extreme form of anti-ethnic discrimination = Genocide
Descent
The nuclear family is important in industrial nations and among foragers - The descent group, by contrast, is the key kinship group among nonindustrial farmers and herders
"Public Transcript"
The open, public interactions between oppressed people and their oppressors
Neolocality:
The pattern of postmarital residence, in which married couples establish a new place of residence away from their parents - For middle-class North Americans, neolocality is both a cultural preference and a statistical norm - HOWEVER, there are significant differences involving kinship between middle-class and poorer North Americans - Ex) Association between poverty and single-parent households - Ex2) Higher incidence of expanded family households among Americans who are less well off (Is an adaption to poverty; unable to survive economically as independent nuclear family units, relatives band together and pool their resources)
Nomadic Politics
The political system associated with pastoralism varied considerable, ranging from tribal societies to chiefdoms
Endogamy
The practice of exogamy pushes social organization outward, establishing and preserving alliances among groups
Melanin
The primary determinant of skin color, is a chemical substance manufactured in the epidermis, or outer skin layer - The melanin cells of darker-skinned people produce more and larger granules of melanin than do those of lighter-skinned people - Melanin offers protecting against a variety of maladies, including sunburn and skin cancer - It is advantageous to have lots of melanin if one lives in the tropics, where UV radiation is intense - And before the 16th century, most of the world's very dark-skinned peoples did live in the topics, a belt extending about 23 degrees north and south of the equator - Outside the tropics, skin color tends to be lighter
Natural Selection:
The process by which the forms most fit to survive and reproduce in a given environment do so - Skin color is influenced by several genes - Melanin
Agricultural Intensification: People and the Environment
The range of environments available for cultivation has widened as people have increased their control over nature
Evangelical Protestantism and pentecostalism
The rapid and ongoing spread of Evangelical Protestantism represents a highly successful form of contemporary cultural globalization - The growth has been particular explosive in Brazil (The world's most Catolic nation) - Growing mainly at the expense of Catholicism - Factors that are working against Catholicism are... - Declining and mainly foreign priesthood, sharply contrasting political agendas of many of its clerics, and its reputation as mainly a women's religion Evangelical Protestantism stresses conservative morality, biblical authority, and personal conversion - Many Brazilian Evangelicals are Pentecostals, who also embrace glossolalia (speaking in tongues) and beliefs in faith healing, sprits, exorcism, and miracles
Susan Bourque and Kay Warren
The same images of masculinity and feminity do not always apply
Gender Roles:
The tasks and activities a culture assigns by gender
World Religions
The unaffiliated constitute the third-largest group worldwide, behind Christians and Muslims - Many of the unaffiliated actually hold some religious or spiritual beliefs, even if they do not ID with a particular religion Worldwide, Islam is growing at a rate about 2.9 percent annually, compared with 2.3 perent for Christianity - By 2050, there will be almost as many Muslims as Christians
What are the benefits of sunlight?
The unclothed human body can produce its own vitamin D when exposed to sufficient sunlight - Vitamin D deficiency reduces the absorption of calcium in the intestines - A nutritional disease known as rickets, which softens and deforms the bones, may develop
Multiculturalism:
The view of cultural diversity in a country as something good and desirable - Opposite of the assimilation - This view encourages the practice of cultural-ethnic traditions - Socializes individuals not only into the dominant (national) culture but also into an ethnic culture - Seeks ways for people to understand and interact that do not depend on sameness but rather on respect for differences - Stresses the interaction of ethnic groups and their contribution to the country - Assumes each group has something to offer and learn from the others
The Family Among Foragers
Their mobile lifestyle favors the nuclear family as the most significant kin group, although in no foraging society is the nuclear family the only group based on kinship The two basic social units of traditional foraging societies... - Nuclear family - Band - Both are based on kinship ties Foragers do not usually reside neolocally - While they are mobile, they join bands in which either the husband or the wife has relatives - Then, the can move from band to bands The mobility and the emphasis on small, economically self-sufficient family units promote the nuclear family as a basic kin group in both foraging societies and in America
Tribal Cultivators
There are no totally autonomous tribes in today's world - Tribes typically have a horticultural or pastoral economy and are organized into villages and/or Descent Groups- Kin groups whose members trace descent from a common ancestor - Tribes lack socioeconomic stratification and a formal government - A few tribes conduct small-scale warfare (intervillage raiding) - Tribes have more effective regulatory mechanisms than foragers do, but they have no means of enforcing political decisions - The main regulatory officials are village heads, "big men", descent-group leaders, village councils, and leaders of pantriable associations - Tend to be egalitarian, although some have marked Gender Stratification- An unequal distribution of resources, power, prestige, and personal freedom between men and women - Egalitarianism diminishes as village size and population density increase
Ethnic Diversity By Region
There is substantial regional variation in countries' ethnic structures - Strong states (Europe), have deliberately and actively worked to homogenize their diverse premodern populations to a common national ID and culture - Although countries with no ethnic majority are fairly rare, this is the norm in Africa - Most Latin American + Caribbean countries contain a majority group and a single minority group -- Indigenous peoples (is a catch-all category encompassing several small Native American tribes or remnants) - Most countries in Asia and the Middle East have ethnic minorities
XXX ->
There is usually no physically distinguishable difference between triple X women and other women - The same is true of XYY compared with other males
Service's labels are categories within a Sociopolitical Typology
These types are correlated with adaptive strategies (economic typology) - Ex) Foragers (an economic type) tend to have band organization (a sociopolitical type) - Ex2) Many horticulturalists and pastoralists live in tribes - Ex3) Non Industrial states usually have an agricultural base - Food production -> larger, denser populations + more complex economics than is the case with foragers
Rites of Intensification
They intensify social solidarity - The ritual creates communitas and produces emotions that enhance social solidarity
Egalitarian:
They make few status distinctions and the ones they make are based mainly on age, gender, and personal qualities or achievements - Foragers are known for sharing rather than bragging - Their status distinctions are not associated with differences in wealth and power, nor are they inherited
Minority Groups
They occupy subordinate (lower) positions within a social hierarchy - They have inferior power and less secure access to resources than do majority groups - Is an obvious form of stratification
Unilineal Descent:
They use only one line of descent, either the male or female line
Black Lives Matter
This movement has arisen in the United States in response to incidents in which Black lives have not seemed to matter much to local officials
Alternative Ends
Throughout the world, people devote some of their time and energy to building up a subsistence fund - People must also invest in a replacement fund - They also must obtain and replace items that are essential not to production but to everyday life, such as clothing and shelter - People everywhere have to invest in a social fund (they must help their friends, relatives, etc.) - It is useful to differentiate between a social fund and a ceremonial fund-- Expenditures on ceremonies or rituals - Citizens of nation-states also must allocate scarce resources to a rent fund-- Refers to resources that people must render to an individual or agency that is superior politically or economically
Population Control
To keep track of whom they govern, states conduct censuses States demarcate boundaries--borders-- that separate that state from other societies - Customs agents, immigration officers, navies, and coast guards patrol frontiers - States also regulate population through administrative subdivison: provinces, districts, states, counties, and parishes - States often promote geographic mobility and resettlement - Population displacements have increased with globalization and as war, famine, and job seeking churn up migratory currents
How do we deal with these harmful effects of the sun?
Today, of course, cultural alternatives to biological adaptions allow light-skinned people to survive in the tropics and darker-skinned people to live in the far north - Light-skinned people can clothe themselves, seek shelter, and use sunscreens - Dark-skinned people can get vitamin D from their diet or take supplements
Benedict Anderson
Traces Western European nationalism back to the 18th century - Stresses the role of the printed word in the growth of national consciousness in England, France, and Spain - The novel and the newspaper were "two forms of imagining" communities (consisting of all the people who read the same sources and thus witnessed the same events)
Explaining Skill Color
Traditional racial classification assumed that biological characteristics such as skin color were determined by heredity and that they were stable over many generations - We now know that a biological similarity does not necessarily indicate recent common ancestry
Tribes:
Typically have economies based on horticulture and pastoralist - Living in villages and organized into kin groups based on common descent, tribes have no formal government + no means of enforcing political decisions
Horticulturalists sty...
Use simple tools (hoes and digging sticks) Typically rely on slash-and-burn techniques -- farmers clear land by cutting down (slashing) trees, saplings, and brush; then, they burn that vegetation - Gets rid of unwanted vegetation + kills pests and provides ashes that help retilize - The farmers then sow, tend and harvest their crops on the cleared plot (they typically use a plot for only a year or two). After the plot lies fallow for several years, it can be farmed again
Malay peasants
Used an indirect strategy to resist and Islamic tith (religious tax) - They used a "nibbling" strategy, based on small acts of resistance - Ex) They failed to declare their land or lied about the amount they farmed
Basseri and the Qashqai
Used the same pasture land at different times of the year - Ethnic group movements were tightly coordinated - Il-Rah- A group's customary path in time and space Each tribe has its own leader (the Khan or Il-Khan) - The Basseri khan, because he dealt with a smaller population, faced fewer problems in coordinating its movements - Correspondingly, his rights, privileges, duties, and authority were weaker - Nevertheless, his authority exceeded that of any political figure discussed so far - His authority came from his personal traits - Among the Qashqai, there were multiple levels of authority and more powerful chiefs/khans (managing 400,000 people required a complex hierarchy) - In order there was the il-khan, the deputy, heads of constituent tribes, and descent-group heads
Powers and Forces
View of the supernatural as a domain of impersonal power, or force, which people can control under certain conditions - This idea is prominent in Melanesia - Mana
Crimes
Violations of the legal code, with specified types of punishment - To handle crimes and disputes, all states have courts and judges A big difference between states and nonstates= intervention in internal and domestic disputes, such as violence within and between families - States are not always successful in their attempts to curb Internal Conflict (About 85% of the world's conflicts since the end of WW2 have begun within states)
Nation:
Was once synonymous with tribe or ethnic group
The potlatching tribes were foragers, but not typical ones...
Were sedentary and had chiefs AND Enjoyed access to a wide variety of land and sea resources
Human activities and preferences are at least partially constructed and influenced by culture ->
Whatever the reasons for individual variation, culture always plays a role in molding individual sexual urges toward a collective norm (such norms vary from culture to culture) - A classic cross-cultural study of 76 societies found wide variation in attitudes about forms of sexual activity - Attitudes about sex differ over time and with socioeconomic status, region, and rural versus ubran residence - In almost two-thirds of the 76 societies, various forms of same-sex sexual activity were acceptable - Flexibility in sexual expression seems to be an aspect of our primate heritage - Both masturbtion and same-sex sexual activity exist among chimpanzees and other primates
Village Fissioning
When a village is dissatisifed with its headman, its member can leave and found a new village
Race:
When an ethnic group is assumed to have a biological basis - Like ethnicity, race is a cultural category rather than a biological reality - That is, ethnic groups, including "races", derive rom contrasts perceived and perpetuated in particular societies, rather than from scientific classifications based on common genes
Transgender:
When their gender ID contradicts their biological sex at birth and the gender ID that society assigned to them in infancy - The transgender category is diverse
Irrigation
Whereas horticulturalists must await the rainy season, agriculturists can schedule their planting in advance because they control water - Irrigation makes it possible to cultivate a plot year after year - It enriches the soil because the irrigated field is a unique ecosystem with several species of plants and animals, many of them minute organisms, whose wastes fertilize the land - An irrigated field= investment that usually increases in value
Gender Identity:
Whether a person feels, acts, and is regarded as male, female, or something else - Gender ID does not dictate one's sexual orietnation
Adaptive Strategies Based on Food Production
With horticulture and agriculture -> plant cultivation is the mainstay of the economy With pastoralism -> herding is key - All three strategies originated in nonindustrial societies
Domestic:
Within or pertaining to the home
This complex ^^ also characterizes many societies in highland Papua New Guinea
Women work hard domestically, but are isolated from the public domain - In densely populated areas of the Paua New Guinea highlands, male-female avoidance is associated with strong pressure on resources - Men fear all female contact, including sexual acts (think sexual contact with women will weaken them) - See everything female as dangerous - The sparsely populated areas of Papua New Guinea, lack taboos on male-female contacts
Members of these societies cherish their ID as people who forage for a living
Yet, many have been evicted from their traditional habitats - Their best chances for cultural survival depend on national governments that maintain healthy forests, allow foragers access to their traditional resources, and foster cultural survival rather than assimilation - Some governments have done the opposite - Ex) the government of Botswana carried out a relocation scheme affecting about 3,000 Basarwa San Bushmen
Verbal manifestations of religious beliefs include ->
prayers, chants, myths, texts, and statements about ethics and morality - Other aspects of religion include notions about purity and pollution, sacrifice, initiation, rites of passage, vision quests, pilgrimages, spirit possession, prophecy, study devotion, and moral actions