Anthropology exam 3
Descent Groups/Descent Group Exogamy
Descent Group is a permanent social unit whose members claim common ancestry; fundamental to tribal society. Exogamy is a rule requiring people to marry outside their own group.
Westermarck's Childhood Familiarity Theory (Familiarity Breeds Contempt)
Edward Westermarck's childhood-familiarity theory posits that people closely associated with each other since early childhood (such as siblings) are not sexually attracted to each other and avoid marriage with each other (1920).
Village Headman/Polygyny
first among equals, leads by example and persuasion, leader, mediator, generous, fierce warrior, headman cultivaes more land than others, his garden provides much of food during village feasts, related to most members of the village. Polygynous (as many as four, five wives), larger villages, more unrelated individuals.
Intensive agriculture characteristics, Irrigation, Fertilizer, Technology, Terracing
food production characterized by the permanent cultivation of fields and made possible by the use of the plow, draft animals or machines, fertilizers, irrigation, water-storage techniques, and other complex agricultural techniques.
neolocal residence
living arrangement in which a married couple sets up residence separate from either spouse's family
John Marshall and The Kalahari Family
made films like The Hunters (1950s), N!ai: The Story of a !Kung Woman (1980), and The Kalahari Family (1990s),
patrilineal-patrilocal complex
male supremacy based on patrilineality, patrilocality, and warfare Gender stratification refers to differences in status between males and females. On one extreme text cites example from Daghara of Iraq (pronounced difference) and the other Mbuti of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Subsistence Adaptation and Other Features
male, female roles, nuclear families, blood feuds, song duels, spouse exchange
Subsistence vs. Market or Commercial Economy
subsistence economy is producing food only for their own consumption. Market or commercial economy is with a profit motive. People in subsistence economies often work less than those in commercial economies.
Practicing or Applied Anthropology Defined
the branch of anthropology that concerns itself with applying anthropological knowledge to achieve practical goals, usually in the service of an agency outside the traditional academic setting
Redistribution exchange
the exchange of goods and resources through centralized organization consists of giving and taking without the use of money, it mainly takes the form of gift giving or generalized reciprocity.
Trobriand Islanders (Kula Ring) Details
the horticultural Trobriand Islanders off the Eastern coast of Papua New Guinea practice an elaborate trade system of ornaments, food, and other necessities with neighboring islands.
-Matrilineage
a lineage formed by descent in the female line
Functions of Unilineal Descent Groups
- regulate marriage - economic - corporate land ownership, financial obligations to help - Political- who has authority, protects, settles disputes -Religious objectives as well
Types of Economic Production
-Domestic -Industrial -Tributary -Post Industrial
The Yanomamo (Venezuela, Brazil)
20,000 individuals, 200-250 scattered villages (75 average), 40-300 per village (75 average). Napoleon Chagnon and Raymond Hames (UNL) Principal Ethnographers, trial horticulturalists who also hunt and gather, villages (shabonos) in forest clearings
Characteristics of Intensive Agriculturalists
-They work longer hours than horticulturalists -More likely to face famines and food shortages individual ownership of land resources- including the right to use the resources and the right to sell or otherwise dispose of them- is common among intensive agriculturalists. Intensive agriculture not always associated with private ownership and does not always occur in political systems that have differences in wealth and power.
General Features of Horticulturalists Revisited
-Yield more food per given area than food collectors -support larger, more densely populated communities -sedentarism -social differentiation and specialization evident hoes and digging sticks, fallow period, shifting cultivation, no use of plows, tractors, animal traction, irrigation, or fertilizer, no terracing. Yield more food per given area than food collectors, support larger, more densely populated communities, sedentarism
General Features (Correlates) of Foragers
A fairly small, usually nomadic local group that is politically autonomous/size varies by season/marriage/power and prestige by age and sex.(a band usually around 100 in size)
Reciprocity exchange
A rational process where those involved seek to maximize rewards and minimize costs
Foraging, Food Collection/Hunter-Gatherers
Although foraging characterizes most of human history, foragers in the world today, also commonly referred to as hunter-gatherers, are not numerous today and most live in marginal areas-deserts, the arctic, and dense tropical rainforests- habitats that do not allow easy exploitation through agriculture. In the last few hundred years, only about 5 million people have been foragers. Hunter-gatherers- people who collect food from naturally occurring resources, that is, wild plants, animals, and fish. The term hunter-gatherers minimizes sometimes heavy dependence on fishing. Also referred to as foragers or food collectors.
Bilateral Kinship/Kindred/Ego
Bilateral kinship is the type of kinship system in which individuals affiliate more or less equally with their mother's and father's relatives (descent groups are absent). Kindred is a bilateral set of close relatives who may be called
Caste Systems (Closed Systems) India (Castes)
Caste Systems (Closed Systems), India (Castes)- A caste is a ranked group whose membership is determined at birth, and marriage is restricted to members of one's own caste. India has four main levels or hierarchies of castes. Most Indians live in rural areas and have agricultural occupations. A large group of untouchables forms the bottom of the hierarchy.
"Two - Spirits" (Berdache)/More than Two Genders Cheyenne/Other Native American Groups
Cheyenne and some other Native American societies recognize a third gender called "two spirits." Two-spirit people more often biological males, upon adulthood, individual would wear women's dress and take on many of the activities of women; may be taken as a second wife by a man. Also, two-spirit biological women (who generally take on male roles) less common but occur in some cultures. Two-spirited women could marry other women.
Parallel and Cross Cousins Revisited
Cross-cousins are children of siblings of the opposite sex. One's cross-cousins are the father's sisters' children and the mother's brothers' children. Parallel cousins are children of siblings of the same sex. One's parallel cousins are the father's brothers' children and the mother's sisters' children.
Egalitarian Characteristics Revisited
Egalitarian societies contain no social groups with greater or lesser access to economic resources, power, or prestige.
Bride Price/Bride Wealth
Exchange of gifts or money to compensate another clan or family for the loss of one of its women along with her productive and reproductive abilities in marriage.
Foragers (Inuit, !Kung) Characteristics
Foragers generally need weapons for the hunt, digging sticks, and receptacles for gathering and carrying. Inuit have more sophisticated forms of technology than most hunter-gatherer groups including harpoons, compound bows, ivory fishhooks, kayak, etc. The Kung shared tools with members of their groups.
Hunting by Women (Agta of the Philippines)
In terms of compatibility, women can and do ask others to watch and feed their infants if they are unavailable. Women among the Agta of the Philippines regularly hunt wild pig and deer and take nursing babies on hunting trips.
The !Kung or Ju/'hoansi
Kalahari Desert of Southern Africa, Very recent group of forgers to be found/Utopian society/Leisure time/relatively Gender equal society/well balanced diet/way of life changed dramatically when they came in contact with modern day peoples
Martin Whyte's Research on Female Status
LOW ASSOCIATED WITH STRATIFICATION, PLOW AND IRRIGATION AGRICULTURE, AND LARGE SETTELMENTS. Status not a Single Concept (Many Components),Higher in Matrilineal/Matrilocal Societies, Low in Preindustrial Political Hierarchies Cross-cultural research by Martin Whyte where he Rated 52 items that might be used to define the relative status of the sexes. These items included such things as which sex can inherit property, who has final authority over disciplining unmarried children, and whether the gods in the society are male, female, or both. Few of these items are related. Status is not a single concept. Whyte found that the idea that generally high status for women stems from a greater caloric contribution to primary subsistence not supported by his research.
Traditional Psychological Research
Males are More Aggressive, Males Have Greater Mathematical Abilities, Males have Greater Visual Spatial Abilities, Females Superior Verbal Abilities
Descent Group/Unilineal Descent Revisited
Matrilineal Descent, Patrilineal Descent- A descent group is a permanent social unit whose members claim common ancestry; fundamental to tribal society. Unilineal descent is a person is affiliated with a group of kin through descent links of one sex only-either males only or females. Unilineal descent can be either patrilineal or matrilineal. Patrilineal descent is the rule of descent that affiliates an individual with kin of both sexes related to him or her through men only. Matrilineal descent is the rule of descent that affiliates individuals with kin of both sexes related to them through women only.
Close class societies
Open and Closed Class Systems- class societies characterized by unequal access to economic resources, power, and prestige.
Progeny Price
Progeny price is when the family of a young man gives goods to the family. They are not paying for her which is bride price but rather for the rights of her children
The Allocation of Resources: Technology Tools, Constructions, Learned Skills
Technology Tools, Constructions, Learned Skills- Every society has a technology, a set of practical tools and skills with which it converts resources into food and other goods. Technologies include tools (digging sticks and harpoons), constructions (nets and traps), and learned skills (how to use them).
Characteristics of Foragers
The Hadza foragers of Tanzania do not believe that they have exclusive rights over the land on which they hunt. Members can hunt, gather, or draw water wherever they like. Hadza do not defend the territories they use from outsiders-that is, members of other language groups.
Alabama Governor George Wallace and the Stand at the Schoolhouse Door (1963)
The Stand in the Schoolhouse Door took place at Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama on June 11, 1963. George Wallace, the Governor of Alabama, in a symbolic attempt to keep his inaugural promise of "segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever" and stop the desegregation of schools, stood at the door of the auditorium to try to block the entry of two black students, Vivian Malone Jones and James Hood.
Polyandry/Fraternal Polyandry (India, Tibet)
The marriage of one woman to more than one man at a time. Fraternal polyandry is the marriage of a woman to two or more brothers at the same time. This could be caused because of a shortage of women.
George Flippin University of Nebraska
The son of freed slaves, George A. Flippin starred at halfback for the University of Nebraska football team from 1891 to 1894. Flippin was a sensational athlete and remarkable player, but his presence on the Nebraska gridiron was the cause of controversy on several different occasions. He was the first African-American athlete at Nebraska and only the fifth black athlete at a predominantly white university. Because of Flippin's presence on the roster, Missouri refused to play a scheduled game with Nebraska at Omaha in 1892. The result was a 1-0 forfeit.
Characteristics of Pastoralist Nomads
The territory of pastoral nomads usually far exceeds that of most horticultural societies. The Basseri utilize 15,000 square miles to obtain supplies of grass and water. Like most foragers and horticulturalists, community members generally have free access to pasture land, while they tend to hold grazing land communally pastoralists customarily own their herds individually.
Open class societies
Unequal access to economic resources, power, and prestige but with the possibility of moving from one class to another.
Three Types of Advantages of Differential Access
Wealth, power, and prestige Wealth is things that have value in a culture- land, tools, goods, money, etc. Power is the ability to influence others and based on threat of force. Prestige is accorded particular respect or honor.
Levirate/sororate marriage practice
When a man loses his wife before she bears a child or she dies leaving young children, her lineage provides another wife to the man, usually a younger sister with a lowered bride-price Levirate is a custom whereby a man is obligated to marry his deceased brother's wife. Sororate is a custom where a woman is obligated to marry her deceased sister's husband.
Explanations for the Relative Status of Women:
Women Contribute More to Primary Subsistence Men's Status Related to Emphasis on Warfare Male Status High With Centralized Authority Women's Status High in Matrilineal/Matrilocal one theory is that women's status will be high when they contribute substantially to primary subsistence. A second theory is that men are more valued and esteemed where warfare is particularly important. A third suggests that men will have higher status where there are centralized political hierarchies. A fourth upholds that women will have higher status where kin groups and postmarital residence are organized around women (matrilineal, matrilocal).
"Traditional" Life Ju/'hoansi (1950s) Subsistence (Men, Women)
Women: get water/make shelter/fire wood/Accounts for about 60-80% of subsistence work Men: Hunt 3 days per week/20%-40% of subsistence work/make and repair tools/Butcher and prepare/Spent more time with children than many other cultures/incredible trackers women gather three days a week, account for 60-80% of subsistence base, mongongo or mangetti nut main staple, roots and tubers, they also fetch water and collect firewood, make huts and arrange bedding, maintain fires, serve food, relative status to other cultures is very high. Men hunt three days a week, provide 20-40% of subsistence base, hunt with spears, bows, and arrows, they also make and repair tools, chop trees for fires and building huts, help collect firewood, butcher, prepare, and serve meat, spend more time with children than other cultures.
patrilineal descent groups
a form of descent in which people trace their primary kin relationships through their fathers unilineal descent rule in which people join the father's group automatically at birth and stay members throughout their life. Include children of the group's men.
Pastoralism/Characteristics of Pastoralists
a form of subsistence technology in which food-getting is based directly or indirectly on the maintenance of domesticated animals. Pastoralists more often get their animal protein from live animals in the form of milk and blood (a high source of protein used for blood), they also trade animal products for plant foods and other necessities.
Dowry
a gift of money or property paid at the time of marriage, either by the bride's parents to her husband or, in Islamic societies, by a husband to his wife
social class
a group of people with similar backgrounds, incomes, and ways of living a social class is a category of people who have all had about the same opportunity to obtain economic resources, power, and prestige.
patrilineage
a lineage that is formed by tracing descent in the male line
patrilocal residence
a residence pattern in which a married couple lives in the husband's father's place of residence
matrilocal residence
a residence pattern in which a married couple lives in the wife's mother's place of residence
The Potlatch (Kwakiutl, Salish) Pacific NW USA
among Native American groups of the Pacific Northwest, a chief may try to enhance his status by holding a potlatch (copper, blankets, food, etc. given away). Potlatch is a feast among Pacific Northwest Native Americans at which great quantities of food and goods are given to the guests in order to gain prestige for the hosts.
Transgender
an umbrella term describing people whose gender identity or expression differs from that associated with their birth sex
Clan/Patriclan/Matriclan/Totem
clan is a set of kin whose members believe themselves to be descended from a common ancestor or ancestress but cannot specify the links back to that founder; often designated by a totem. Patriclan (clans with patrilineal descent) is a clan tracing descent through the male line. Matriclan (clan with matrilineal descent) is a clan tracing descent through the female line. Totem is a plant or animal associated with a clan as a means of group identification; may have other special significance for the group.
Inuit (Eskimo) Traditional Adaptation
classic study by Hoebel (1954), 20,000 Eskimos span 6,000 miles of the Arctic, nuclear families tied to larger band organization, hunting/fishing by men are primary subsistence activities, women butcher and sew, high male mortality and female infanticide to balance sex ratio (but still more women), often polygynous, permanent sedentary communities, wage labor, use of snowmobile, rifle, can now overexploit resources, lead to extinction, loss of language, hunting culture, increasingly dependent on Western goods.
Explanations for the Universality of Marriage:
marriage is adaptive, gender division of labor, prolonged infant dependency, sexual competition among males, research on mammals and birds.
distribution of goods and services: Three types
reciprocity, redistribution, and market or commercial exchange
Characteristics of Bands Level Organization
size often varies by season, individuals shift membership throughout life (band) exogamous, affiliate with Band through kinship, marriage, fictive kinship, egalitarian (power and prestige)but division of labor by age and sex, basic unit of social organization among foragers. A band includes fewer than 100 people, it often splits up seasonally, a fairly small, usually nomadic local group that is politically autonomous
General Features of Agriculturalists
societies with intensive agriculture more likely than horticulturalists to have towns and cities, a high degree of craft specialization, complex political organization, and large differences in wealth and power. Intensive agriculturalists tend to work longer hours than horticulturalists, also more likely to face famines and food shortages (although it is generally more productive than horticulture).
Ember et al. Hypothesis?: Postpartum Feeding Requirements and Male Aid
species in which postpartum mothers cannot feed themselves and their babies at the same time do typically form male-female bonds.
Chayanov's Rule
suggests that when there are proportionately more workers in a society people can work less. Conversely, few able-bodied workers and more consumers (children, aged) the workers have to work harder;
market or commercial exchange
transactions in which the "prices" are subject to supply and demand, whether or not the transactions occur in a marketplace
