Anthropology: Chapter 2 Review

The American anthropologist responsible for the concept of historical particularism was named...

-Franz Boas (most responsible) -Alfred Kroeber -Edward Sapir

Functionalism

A perspective that assumes that cultural practices and beliefs serve purposes for society.

"Owning" culture (means)

Controlling symbols that give power and meaning.

The process of learning culture from a very young age is called

Enculturation

True or False: Activities that are biologically based, such as eating and sleeping, are universally the same for all humans.

False

True or False: All humans are born with some culture.

False

True or False: Cultural relativism is important because it helps anthropologists understand and defend all the things that people in other cultures do.

False

True or False: Most anthropologists believe in a single unified theory of culture.

False

True or False: People rarely hold conflicting values.

False

The theory of culture that proposes that cultural practices, beliefs, and institutions fulfill the psychological and physical needs of society is called

Functionalism

The theory that posits that cultural practices and beliefs serve purposes for society is called _______________.

Functionalism

Customs

Long-established norms that have a codified and lawlike aspect.

Social institutions

Organized sets of social relationships that link individuals to each other in a structured way in a particular society.

The idea that embraces dynamic cultural processes and the idea that the observer of cultural processes can never see culture completely objectively represent

Post-structuralism

Values

Symbolic expressions of intrinsically desirable principles or qualities.

Enculturation

The process of learning the social rules and cultural logic of a society.

True or False: Culture is uniquely human.

True

Who was responsible for the theory of functionalism?

-Bronislaw Malinowski (most responsible) -A. R. Radcliffe-Brown

Who was responsible for the theory of social evolution?

-E. B. Tylor (most responsible) -Herbert Spencer -L. H. Morgan

A cross-cultural perspective on eating insect larvae would reveal

-How powerful cultural beliefs are -Culture helps shape basic things all people do

Examples of social institutions are

-Patterns of kinship and marriage -Economic activities -Religious institutions -Political forms for controlling power

The theorist most connected with post-structuralism is

-Renato Rosaldo (most connected) -James Clifford -George Marcus -Michael M. J. Fischer

A social consequence of introducing coffee into the highlands of Papua New Guinea was that

-Young coffee growers used their money to achieve social status and became Big Men -All the open land was filled with coffee

Culture is (includes what characteristics?)

-learned -based on symbols -dynamic -integrated -shaping everybody's life -shared -overcoming ethnocentrism

Holistic perspective

A perspective that aims to identify and understand the whole—that is, the systematic connections between individual cultural beliefs and practices—rather than the individual parts.

Social sanction

A reaction or measure intended to enforce norms and punish their violation.

Interpretive theory of culture

A theory that culture is embodied and transmitted through symbols.

The idea that Once ancestors make tidal waves and earthquakes would be understood by an interpretive anthropologist as

A way of explaining how the world works

Symbol

An object, idea, image, figure, or character that represents something else.

Cross-cultural perspective

Analyzing a human social phenomenon by comparing that phenomenon in different cultures.

Michael Ames developed exhibits with native Canadian communities at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia because he believed in _______________.

Collaborative museum exhibits

Collective definitions of proper and improper behavior that "build" meanings through common experiences and negotiations are cultural _____________.

Construction

Anthropologists believe that analyzing human cultural phenomena by comparing those phenomena across different societies, called the _______________ approach, is necessary to appreciate how "artificial" our beliefs and actions are.

Cross-cultural perspective

The unilateral decision of one social group to take control of the symbols, objects, and practices of others is called _______________.

Cultural appropriation

The experience of feeling that the way your culture does things is the right way and any different way of doing things is wrong is called _______________.

Ethnocentrism

If you wanted to understand the norms of a society, you would most likely focus on

Everyday interactions

The controversy between Native American and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) schools using mascots illustrates

How powerful such traditions can be.

The defining feature of historical particularism is

Individual societies develop particular cultural traits and undergo a unique process of change.

Because our values and beliefs include many elements of life such as clothes, food, and language means that culture is

Integrated

An _______________ approach to culture, such as that promoted by Clifford Geertz, Victor Turner, and Mary Douglas, emphasizes that culture is a shared system of meanings.

Interpretive anthropology

Cultural determinism is unproductive for cultural analysis because

It denies the influence of other factors like physical environment and human biology on behavior

Many anthropologists are wary about traditions because, while they may feel antiquated to some people, they are often _______________.

Not as old as people say or think they are

Norms are stable because

People learn them from an early age and because of the social pressure to conform.

The structuralist approach to culture theorizes what?

People make sense of the world through binary oppositions.

Tradition

Practices and customs that have become mostly ritualized and enduring.

When Kay Warren presented her anthropological research, a group of Maya intellectuals, activists, and political leaders:

Responded by challenging the right of foreign anthropologists even to study Maya culture.

Anthropologists overcome ethnocentrism by

Seeing matters from the point of view of another culture

The idea that cultures pass through stages from primitive to complex is known as _______________.

Social evolution

A symbol is:

Something - an object idea, image, figure, or character - that represents something else.

Ethnocentrism is:

The assumption that one's own way of doing things is correct while dismissing other people's practices or views as wrong or ignorant.

The perspective that aims to identify and understand cultures in the entirety is called

The holistic perspective

Cultural determinism

The idea that all human actions are the product of culture, which denies the influence of other factors, such as physical environment and human biology, on human behavior.

Cultural construction

The meanings, concepts, and practices that people build out of their shared and collective experiences.

The application of a holistic perspective to understand changes in everyday practices, such as eating breakfast cereals, reveals

The processes of cultural appropriation.

Cultural appropriation

The unilateral decision of one social group to take control over the symbols, practices, or objects of another.

If a functionalist were to explain why the teacher lectures from the front of the classroom to students organized in neatly arranged chairs, she or he would emphasize that

This way of teaching organized people to promote shared cultural goals.

The main idea behind the holistic perspective is to study culture

Through the systematic connections of different parts.

The most enduring and ritualized aspects of culture are referred to as

Traditions

True or False: Cultural appropriation involves relationships of power.

True

True or False: Culture can be transmitted virtually through the Internet in addition to face-to-face interaction.

True

True or False: Culture consists of the collective processes that make the artificial seem natural.

True

Norms

Typical patterns of actual behavior as well as the rules about how things should be done.

A focus on _______________ helps anthropologists understand inartistically desirable principles held by a group of people.

Values

How would a critical relativist explain Native American criticisms of cultural appropriation?

While it is important to understand Native American claims from their point of view, it does not mean we should accept them as the only way to view the issue.