Chapter 2

Culture is

Learned and shared

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

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

interpretive theory

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

invented

Ethnocentrism is

the judgment of other groups by one's own standards and values

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

the power of tradition

Culture can be transmitted virtually through the Internet in addition to face-to-face interaction

true

Culture consists of the collective processes that make the artificial seem natural.

true

Most anthropologists believe in a single unified theory of culture

true

Who was responsible for the theory of functionalism

Bronislaw Malinowski

Who was responsible for the theory of social evolution

E. B. Taylor

The process of learning culture at a young age is

Enculturation

The American anthropologist responsible for the concept of historical particularism was

Franz Boas

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

Functionalism

examples of social institutions

Government and economy, education, religion, family, health and medicine

A symbol

Object, word, or action that stands for something else

The structuralist approach to culture theorizes what

People make sense of the world through binary oppositions (raw/cook)

The theorist most concerned with post structuralism

Renata rosado

a cross cultural perspective on eating insect larva would reveal

The artificiality of taste, the cultural constructions of insects as food, that eating insects can be adaptive

The most enduring and ritualized aspects of culture is

Traditions

Anthropologists overcome ethnocentrism by

a relativistic perspective

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

a way of explaining of how the world works

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

a)young men gained social status b) coffee plantations took over all open land c)people had more access to commodities

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

challenged her right, as a foreign anthropologist, to study the Maya culture

"Owning" culture (means)

controlling symbols that give meaning

. 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

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

cultural appropriation

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

cultural construction

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

false

All humans are born with some culture

false

Cultural appropriation involves relationships of power

false

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

false

Culture is uniquely human

false

People rarely hold conflicting values

false

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

functionalism

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

holistic

The defining feature of historical particularism is

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

cultural determinism is unproductive for cultural analysis because

it explains all human action as the product of culture alone, it can justify atrocities, it denies the influence of factors like physical environment and biology on humans

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

it is important to understand Native American claims from their point of view though it doesn't necessarily mean we should accept them as the only way to view the issue

Norms are stable because

people learn them when they are young

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

post structuralism

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

social evolution

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

the interconnections between different domains of a society

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

this way of teaching organizes people to promote shared cultural goals

the main idea behind the holistic perspective is to study culture

through systematic connections of different parts