EXAM 1: Chapters 1,2,3
When did anthropology emerge as an academic discipline?
1800's
Genetic drift
A change in genetic variation across generations due to random factors
Population
A cluster of individuals of the same species who share a common geographical area and find their mates more often in their own cluster than in others
An ethical approach to anthropological research would emphasize
A commitment to doing no harm Rejection of clandestine research Responsibilities toward the host country and the people you are studying
Founder effect
A form of genetic drift that is the result of a dramatic reduction in population numbers so that descendent populations are descended from a small number of "founders."
Phylogeny
A graphic representation that traces the evolutionary relationships and identifies points when an evolutionary event or change occurred, such as the creation of anew species.
Quantitative method
A methodology that classifies features of a phenomenon, counting or measuring them and constructing mathematical and statistical models to explain what is observed
Plasticity
A particular form of developmental bias in which an organism responds to its environment by changing during its lifetime
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.
Functionalism
A perspective that assumes that cultural practices and beliefs serve social purposes in any society
A ______ charts the evolutionary history of a particular taxonomic branch and yields information about its ancestry.
A phylogenetic tree
Ethnographic method
A prolonged and intensive observation of and participation in the life of a community
Social sanction
A reaction or measure intended to enforce norms and punish their violation
Comparative method
A research method that derives insights from careful comparisons of aspects of two or more cultures or societies
Qualitative method
A research strategy producing an in-depth and detailed description of social activities and beliefs
Gene
A segment of DNA that contains the code for a protein
Taxonomy
A system of naming and classifying organisms
Binomial nomenclature
A taxonomic system that assigns two names to organisms.
Theory
A tested and repeatedly supported hypothesis
Interpretive theory of culture
A theory that culture is embodied and transmitted through symbols
A symbol
A thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract.
Developmental systems theory
An approach that combines multiple dimensions and interactants toward understanding the development of organisms and systems and their evolutionary impact
Genotype
An organism's genetic component
Cross-cultural perspective
Analyzing a human social phenomenon by comparing that phenomenon in different cultures.
Applied anthropology
Anthropological research commissioned to serve an organization's needs.
Practicing anthropology
Anthropological work involving research as well as involvement in the design, implementation, and management of some organization, process, or product
Ethnocentrism
Belief in the superiority of one's nation or ethnic group.
culture is
Beliefs, customs, and traditions of a specific group of people.
Mutation
Change at the level of the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)
The thinker who developed evolutionary theory in the nineteenth century was
Charles Darwin
Othering
Defining colonized peoples as different from, and subordinate to, Europeans in terms of their social, moral, and physical norms
Who was responsible for the theory of social evolution?
E.B. Tylor
The nineteenth-century British anthropologist credited with the development of the concept of culture through an evolutionary perspective was
Edward B. Taylor
Holism
Efforts to synthesize distinct approaches and findings into a single comprehensive interpretation
constructivist approach
Emphasizes that a core dynamic of human biology and culture is processes of construction: the construction of meanings, social relationships, ecologicalniches, and developing bodies.
Assuming your culture's way of doing things is the best is called
Ethnocentrism
Protein synthesis
How DNA assists in the creation of the molecules that make up organisms (proteins).
Reproductive success
How many surviving offspring an organism has
Research institutes and universities where research is conducted are required by law to have__________, which monitor all human subjects-based research
IRB (Institutional review boards)
Why is AIDS having a more dramatic effect on populations in sub-Saharan African thanin North America and Europe?
In sub-Saharan Africa, people have limited access to medicine that makes AIDS a manageable condition
One of the more important ways that anthropology contributes to the development ofevolutionary theory is that
It challenges the biological reductionism of much evolutionary theory
Customs
Long-established norms that have a codified and law-like aspect.
The American anthropologist responsible for the concept of historical particularism was named
Marvin Harris
Ethics
Moral questions about right and wrong and standards of appropriate behavior
Social institutions
Organized sets of social relationships that link individuals to each other in a structured way in a particular society
Norms are stable because
People learn them from an early age because of the social pressure to conform
Tradition
Practices and customs that have become most ritualized and enduring
Anthropocene
Refers to the geological epoch defined by substantial human influence overecosystems.
The theorist most connected with post-structuralism is
Renato Rosaldo
Symbol
Something—an object, idea, image, figure, or character—that represents something else
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)
Spiral-shaped molecule strands that contains the biologicalinformation for the cell.
Values
Symbolic expressions of intrinsically desirable principles or qualities
Evolution
The adaptive changes in populations of organisms across generations
Ethnocentrism
The assumption that one's own way of doing things is correct, while dismissing other people's practices or views as wrong or ignorant
Epigenetic system of inheritance
The biological aspects of bodies that work in combination with the genes and their protein products, such as the machinery of the cells, the chemical interactions between cells, and reactions between types of tissue and organs in the body
Biocultural
The complex intersections of biological, psychological, and cultural processes
Adaptation
The development of a trait that plays a functional role in the ability of a life form to survive and reproduce
Industrialization
The economic process of shifting from an agricultural economy to a factory-based one
Colonialism
The historical practice of more powerful countries claiming possession of less powerful ones.
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
Developmental bias
The idea that not all variations are random, but a function of the developmental processes organisms undergo during their lives that tend to generate certain forms more readily than others
Cultural construction
The meanings, concepts, and practices that people build out of their shared and collective experiences
Cultural relativism
The moral and intellectual principle that one should withholdjudgment about seemingly strange or exotic beliefs and practices
Gene flow
The movement of genetic material within and between populations
Phenotype
The observable and measurable traits of an organism
Salvage paradigm
The paradigm which held that it was important to observe indigenous ways of life, interview elders, and assemble collections of objects made and used by indigenous peoples
Essentialism
The philosophical position that dictates that each organism has a true, ideal form and that all living representatives of that organism are slight deviations from the ideal type.
Replication
The process by which DNA makes copies of itself
Mitosis
The process of cell division and replication
Meiosis
The process of gamete production
Enculturation
The process of learning the social rules and cultural logic of a society
Diversity
The sheer variety of ways of being human around the world
Extra-genetic inheritance
The socially transmitted and epigenetic factors that can aid in the adaptive success of organisms
Scientific method
The standard methodology of science that begins from observable facts, generates hypotheses from these facts, and then tests these hypotheses
Linguistic anthropology
The study of how people communicate with one other another through language and how language use shapes group membership and identity
Anthropology
The study of human beings, their biology, their pre-prehistory and histories, and their changing languages, cultures, and social institutions
Archaeology
The study of past cultures, by excavating sites where people lived, worked, farmed, or conducted some other activity.
Biological anthropology
The study of the biological aspects of the human species, past and present, along with those of our closest relatives, the nonhuman primates.
Cultural anthropology
The study of the social lives of living communities
Culture
The taken-for-granted notions, rules, moralities, and behaviors within a social group
Behavioral system of inheritance
The types of patterned behaviors that parents and adults pass on to young members of their group by way of learning and imitation
Cultural appropriation
The unilateral decision of one social group to take control overthe symbols, practices, or objects of another
Geneticization
The use of genetics to explain health and social problems rather than other possible causes
Alleles
The variants in the DNA sequences for a given gene
Modern Synthesis
The view of evolution that accepts the existence of four geneticallybased processes of evolution: mutation, natural selection, gene flow, and genetic drift.
Extended Evolutionary Synthesis
The view of evolution that accepts the existence of not just genetically based, but also non-genetically based, processes of evolution:developmental bias, plasticity, niche construction, and extra-genetic inheritance.
Shared characteristics
Traits of structures shared by all or most species in a group because they are inherited from a common ancestral species
Shared derived characteristics
Traits that evolved after all the species being compared shared a common ancestor, but prior to some more recent speciation events
Derived characteristics
Traits unique to a species that evolved after two or more species who have shared a common ancestor diverged
Norms
Typical patterns of actual behavior as well as the rules about how things should be done
Empirical
Verifiable through observation rather than through logic or theory
Niche construction
When organisms play an active role in their evolution by reshaping the environment to suit their own needs
The Greek philosopher Aristotle proposed that all life was arranged in
a great chain of being
Bio-cultural evolutionary theory has led to questions about the merits of reduction is thinking, and how it tends to oversimplify. One of the more productive results of this critique has been the application in anthropology of
a holistic approach
The idea that Ongee ancestors make tidal waves and earthquakes would be understood by an interpretive anthropologist as
a way of explaining how the world works
An evolutionary perspective on variations in physical traits reflects
adaptive changes
Comparing DNA sequences allows us to understand whether organisms are connected through common ___________ .
ancestors
Which of the following is the most significant aspect of the salvage paradigm?
anthropologists need to collect information from societies before they die out
The subfield of anthropology that studies the material remains of past cultures, often focusing on the rise of cities, is called
archaeology
The peppered moth is a classic example of how environmental factors
are part of the interaction between genotype and phenotype
The subfield of anthropology that studies human evolution, including human genetics and human nutrition, is called
biological anthropology
A taxonomic structure is one that
both names and classifies all organisms according to a system
A quantitative approach to studying the archaeological past would be most interested in
building and testing hypotheses by collecting, classifying, and measuring the remains of past cultures
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
The historical practice of more powerful countries claiming possession of less powerful ones is called __________ and was a driving force in anthropology
colonialism
The construction of meaning, social relationships, and niches are all part of a larger theoretical framework that anthropologists refer to as the
constructivist approach
Anthropologists who study human biocultural evolution believe that evolution
continues in all organisms until they are extinct
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 subfield of anthropology that studies human diversity, beliefs, and practice is called
cultural anthropology
The controversy between Native Americans and National Collegiate Athletic Association(NCAA) schools using mascots illustrates
cultural appropriation
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 throughcommon experiences and negotiations are cultural __________.
cultural construction
he 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
cultural ethnocentrism
The idea that cultures pass through stages from primitive to complex is known as
cultural evolution
A key principle of the holistic perspective developed by Franz Boas is
cultural relativism
The moral and intellectual principle that one should withhold judgment about seemingly strange or exotic beliefs and practices is known as
cultural relativism
the symbolic system of inheritance works through the establishment of
culture and language
The ability of African cichlids, a popular pet fish, to develop highly similar body shapes despite coming from two different and geographically distant environments is an example of
developmental bias
One of the useful results of a phylogeny is to show that
each lineage has a unique history, and thus no organism is "more evolved"
The process of learning culture from a very young age is called
enculturation
The method of data collection that involves prolonged and intensive observation of everyday life and is a hallmark of cultural anthropology is the ____________
ethnographic method
If you wanted to understand the norms of a society, you would most likely focus on
everyday interactions
The refinement of Darwin's theory has shown that
evolution can only be measured or seen across generations within a population
According to the extended evolutionary synthesis, parents who teach their young a particular behavior that aids in their evolutionary success are practicing __________
extra-genetic inheritance
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
Anthropologists have always approached a problem by specializing in one of the four subfields.
false
Anthropologists never disguise their informants' identities in order to preserve the transparency of their research process.
false
Contemporary cultural anthropologists often rank societies along an evolutionary scale from"primitive" to "advanced."
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
Gene flow can occur because of intentional changes in immigration policies in aparticular country
false
Gene flow is the movement of genetic material across different ecosystems
false
Historical archaeologists excavate sites where there are no written or oral histories
false
Most anthropologists believe in a single unified theory of culture
false
People rarely hold conflicting values
false
The scientific method is a research method in pursuit of ultimate truths.
false
Variation in genes acts as the sole source for biological change of traits in an organism.
false
non-random mating among the Hutterite sect in Canada is a good example of how genetic drift works
false
Examples of social institutions are
families, sports teams, religions, hospitals, and healthcare systems
When cultural anthropologists live in societies for one or more years observing social life, they are doing __________
fieldwork
Loss of genetic variation occurring when a small population creates a new, usually isolated, community is known as the __________.
founder effect
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
If you wanted to understand the evolutionary dimensions of why human males have population-based differences in facial hair across the world, you might focus on
gene flow
Individuals migrating from one country to another can fundamentally alter genetic variation in all members of both populations because of _________
gene flow
The recent upsurge in migration due to refugees seeking safety from war zones provides biological anthropologists an easy opportunity to observe and document
gene flow
__________ refers to the adaptive changes that organisms make across generations
genetic variations
A cross-cultural perspective on eating insect larvae would reveal
he artificiality of taste, the cultural constructions insects as food, that eating insects can be adaptive
The perspective that aims to identify and understand cultures in the entirety is called
holistic
A key feature of the __________ concept is that it refers to the taken-for-granted notions, rules, moralities, and behaviors within a social group that feel natural.
holistic approach
A biological anthropologist interested in health and illness would study
how human genetics change in relation to diseases
One of the key popular misunderstandings about the causes of obesity is
humans have a normal diet
The defining feature of historical particularism is
individual societies develop particular cultural traits and undergo a unique process of change.
What process involves shifting from an agricultural economy to a factory-based one?
industrialization
The practice of anthropologists explaining their research to participants and being clear about the risks involved is called __________
informed consent
Because our values and beliefs include many elements of life such as clothes, food, and language means that culture is
intergrated
An __________ approach to culture, such as that promoted by Clifford Geertz, VictorTurner, and Mary Douglas, emphasizes that culture is a shared system of meanings.
interpretive approach
Michael Ames developed exhibits with native Canadian communities at the Museum ofAnthropology at the University of British Columbia because he believed in __________
interpretive theory
The application of the comparative method in his research in Papua New Guinea led coauthorRobert Welsch to focus on
interviews of village elders in different villages, published and unpublished accounts of mask collectors who visited different villages, and museum collections
Even if we cannot necessarily predict the outcomes of direct genetic manipulation, we do know that it has direct social impacts, including
it can lead to unequal treatments in a given population
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
The reason biocultural anthropology rejects the genetic system of inheritance as the only means of understanding human evolution is that
it is too narrow to appreciate the complexity of human inheritance
During fieldwork, cultural anthropologists
learn the local language, record people's economic transactions, and study how environmental changes affect agriculture
The subfield of anthropology that studies language use is called
linguistic anthropology
Plasticity can be understood as not being Lamarckian because
modification happens before genetic changes appear that keep the change in place across generations
Ethics, which are __________, are important to anthropologists
moral questions of right and wrong
If you observed gradual changes in environmental temperature and, at the same time, observed that there were changes in the phenotype of a butterfly species over fifteen generations, which theory might best help explain what is going on?
natural selection
The process by which inheritable traits are passed along to offspring because they are better suited to the environment is
natural selection
In terms of the extended evolutionary synthesis, large-scale agriculture, which produces massive amounts of both food and pollution, can be understood as a form of
niche construction
termites in the wild construct huge "mounds" as a habitat. From the perspective of biocultural evolutionary concepts, termites and their engineering feats are involved in a type of
niche construction
One of the key aspects of biocultural evolution is that there is
no specific direction or goal as an outcome, but that it is dynamic
The structuralist approach to culture theorizes what?
people make sense of the world through binary oppositions
If you wanted to study genetic drift in Hutterite colonies such as those in which Michael Park studied gene flow, you would be interested in
population records that suggest a dramatic reduction in population
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 broadest category of anthropological work is known as __________ in which the anthropologist not only performs research but is involved in the design, implementation, and management of the some organization, process, or product
practicing anthropology
Western colonial powers understood the different customs and cultures of the people they colonized as
proof of their primitive nature
Sickle-cell anemia, a blood cell mutation, takes a toll on those afflicted, but is an example of a mutation that may also be useful because it
provides resistance to malaria in the tropics
Research that involves interviews, observations, images, objects, and words is a __________ study.
qualitative
Techniques that classify features of a phenomenon and count, measure, and construct statistical models are collecting and analyzing
quantitative data
The term diversity, when defined anthropologically,
refers to both multiplicity and variety
The comparative method
research technique that compares existing official statistics and historical records across groups to test a theory about some social phenomenon
Anthropologists overcome ethnocentrism by
seeing matters from the point of view of another culture
_________ emerges when genetic variation within a group grows so large that its members begin exhibiting important genetic and physical differences.
speciation
One of the central ideas of Darwin's theory of evolution was the idea that
species change over time, give rise to new species, and share a common ancestor.
"Survival of the fittest" is taken to mean competition for __________.
successful reproduction
Gregor Mendel's findings about inheritance among pea plants stemmed from what keyability that he possessed?
the ability to observe closely
Even though anthropologists use parts of the scientific method, some don't see what they do as science because
the complexity of social behavior prevents any completely objective analysis of human culture
A qualitative approach to studying social life in your university would emphasize all of the following except
the construction of statistical models to explain activities in the community
The genetic dimension of obesity is related to
the environmental conditions that have affected our food supply during the past 300,000 years
What prompted intellectuals to start systematically explaining the differences among people?
the industrial revolution
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
Linguistic anthropologists traditionally study
the nature of human languages in the context of those cultures that developed them
A key element of the scientific method, which both explains things and guides research, is
theories
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
One of the important ways that genetic material is moved between different populations, such as through gene flow, is
through the choice of a sexual partner
The primary ethical responsibility of anthropologists is to
to protect the physical, social, and psychological welfare and to honor the dignity and privacy of those studied
Even though many people believe that their __________ are very old, these enduring and ritualized aspects of culture are often much more recent than we realize
traditions
The most enduring and ritualized aspects of culture are referred to as
traditions
A change in DNA sequence leading to variation is known as mutation.
true
A key concern in the 1850s that shaped the discipline of anthropology was the emergence of anew scientific theory called "evolution."
true
Culture can only be transmitted through face-to-face interaction
true
Culture consists of the collective processes that make the artificial seem natural
true
Culture is uniquely human
true
Diversity, defined anthropologically, refers to both multiplicity and variety, which is not the same thing as "difference."
true
Many evolutionary processes interact to affect the organism
true
Qualitative methods often use the researchers themselves as the research instrument
true
The physical characteristics of any organism that can be seen are known as the phenotype.
true
There is rarely any guessing involved in the development of theories because they are tested repeatedly
true
clyde Kluckhohn argued that both biological and cultural aspects of humanity must be seen as a continuum of small changes
true
A focus on __________ helps anthropologists understand intrinsically desirable principles held by a group of people.
values
The core idea of Darwin's and Wallace's ideas—descent with modifications via natural selection—is intimately tied to what larger force?
variation
The behavioral system of inheritance refers to the patterned behaviors that parents and adults pass onto young members of their group via __________.
way of learning and imitation
A linguistic anthropologist studying people's relationships to the natural world would be most interested in
what words people use to classify things in their environment
Who was responsible for the theory of functionalism?
Émile Durkheim