Cultural Anthropology Exam 1

3 roots of anthropology

1. Disruptions of Industrialization 2. Theories of Evolution 3. Imposition of colonial rule

Identify the four modes of subsistence

1. Foraging 2. Pastoralism 3. Horticulture 4. Agriculture

6 elements of culture

1. learned not inherited 2. changes in response to internal/external circumstances 3. humans not bound 4. symbolic 5. distinguishes 6. Culture and biology are interrelated

Explain how traditional approaches to ethnographic fieldwork contrast with contemporary approaches

A common view of the first half of the twentieth century was that many "primitive" cultures were quickly disappearing and they needed to be salvaged before they were lost. They documented and took artifacts of these cultures they believed were "dying." Photographs and paintings often glossed over the difficult reality that native people were persecuted and displaced. Today, anthropologists recognize that cultures constantly change as people respond to external and internal influences and that there is no moment when a culture is more authentic or more primitive. Contemporary research is in complex, technologically advanced societies, multi-sites, and technological sites of interactions. There is problem-oriented, quantitative, and mixed methods research.

Ethnography

A detailed description of a particular culture primarily based on fieldwork.

Medical Anthropology

A specialization in anthropology that brings theoretical and applied approaches from cultural and biological anthropology to the study of human health and disease

Pastoralism

A type of agricultural activity based on nomadic animal husbandry or the raising of livestock to provide food, clothing, and shelter. not raised for meat but for other resources

evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the intensification of globalization

Advantages: -has made people increasingly aware of the social injustices happening in other parts of the world and help with recovery efforts -connections people now feel with others in another location -solidarity movements can gain quick momentum thanks to technological innovations, i.e. social media -micro-loan programs and crowd-source fundraising -advances in transportation technologies Disadvantages -decimation of indigenous tribes -spread of infectious diseases -social media can spread hate -widening wealth gap in "rich" countries

Zora Neal Hurston

Ahead of her time, who gets to study whom, whose ideas are marginalized/forgotten Baracoon- last living man enslaved Publishers said they would only publish if she changed language, wasn't published until 2018 excluded from the textbook --> whose stories are heard

What do paleoanthropologists study?

Ancient human relatives

Which subfield of anthropology aims to solve specific practical problems in collaboration with governmental, non-profit, and community organizations?

Applied anthropology

Ethnocentrism

Belief in the superiority of one's ethnic group and the evaluation of other cultures according to customs of one's own culture.

Bronislaw Malinowski

British anthropologist (born in Poland) who introduced the technique of the participant observer (1884-1942) Father of fieldwork Theory: each culture functions to satisfy the specific biological and psychological needs of the people "native's point of view" Functionalism

Bob Myers

Caribbean history, anthropological perspective- comparative and holistic view

Evolution

Charles Darwin natural selection- certain traits enable survival

Analyze the ways in which the global agricultural system separates producers from consumers and contributes to wealth differences.

Complex chains of distribution separate the producers of goods from the consumer. An effect of the global commodity chain is that food moves very far from its point of origin. In order to serve markets in wealthy countries, food is diverted away from the locales where it is grown. Food is more valuable at the end of the commodity chain, making farming not lucrative for the farmers.

What phrase does Bob Myers use to encourage his students to appreciate that anthropology happens all around them?

"Have an anthropological weekend."

Biological anthropology and archaeology use what kind of approach when conducting research?

Deductive

Discuss some of the ethical considerations in doing anthropological fieldwork

Do no harm Obtain informed consent Maintain anonymity and privacy Make results accessible Maintain respectful and ethical professional relationships

Charles Darwin

English natural scientist who formulated a theory of evolution by natural selection (1809-1882)

Herbert Spencer

English philosopher and sociologist who applied the theory of natural selection to human societies (1820-1903)

Jane Goodall

English zoologist noted for her studies of chimpanzees in the wild (born in 1934)

Defining human language

-Symbols -arbitrariness: nothing innate that connects an object to a word -anatomical capability

nonverbal communication

-kinetics -proxemics: body language affects interpretation of language

Cultural Relativism Fallacies

-promotes non-intervention, indifferent to destructive or maladaptive cultural practices -conceit: anthropologists assume that they can walk into a culture and understand it -risks essentializing others

Paralanguage

Nonlinguistic means of vocal expression: rate, pitch, tone, and so on.

To which of the following does ethnography NOT refer?

Novels written by cultural anthropologists

How did the "Age of Enlightenment" plant seeds for many academic disciplines, including anthropology?

Ordinary people could learn the "truth" through observation and experience.

Sir Charles Lyell

Principles of Geology

explain how language is affected by social class, ethnicity, gender and other aspects of identity

Social class: people can indicate social class by the way that they speak. The closer to the standard version their dialect is, the more they are seen as a member of a higher social class because the dialect reflects a higher education. Ethnicity: a language variety is often associated with an ethnic group when its members use language as a marker of solidarity. It can be used to distinguish from a larger, sometimes oppressive, language group when they are a minority population. Gender: in any culture that has differences in gender role expectations (all of them), there are differences in how people talk based on their gender. In the US: males expected to speak low, monotone pitch, women are freer to use their entire pitch range and minimal responses.

describe some ways people use agency to respond to globalization, including syncretism and participation in alternative markets

Syncretism is the combination of different beliefs into a new harmonious whole. It can be used by marginalized communities to resist without directly challenging their oppressors. Structural adjustments mandated by international bodies like the IMF and WB have left farmers in developing nations particularly vulnerable to the whims of global markets. Fair trade has emerged as a way for socially-conscious consumers to support small farmers and artisians who have been affected by these policies.

Holism

The anthropological commitment to consider the full scope of human life, including culture, biology, history, and language, across space and time.

agriculture

The deliberate effort to modify a portion of Earth's surface through the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock for sustenance or economic gain. reliance on staple crops large populations division of labor wealth differences and environmental degradation use of technology allowed for the intensification of land

Colonization

The expansion of countries into other countries where they establish settlements and control the people

Morphemes

The smallest units of meaning in a language. a word or a part of a word that carries meaning

Enculturation

The social process by which culture is learned and transmitted across generations, learn to become members of our group

Applied Anthropology

The use of anthropological knowledge and methods to solve practical problems, often for a specific client.

Margaret Mead

United States anthropologist noted for her claims about adolescence and sexual behavior in Polynesian cultures (1901-1978) Coming of Age in Samoa

Reflexivity

a critical self-examination of the role the anthropologist plays and an awareness that one's identity affects one's fieldwork and theoretical analyses

In cultural anthropology, the term "belief" refers to

all mental aspects of culture

Philippe Bourgois

an anthropologist who worked among crack dealers in Spanish Harlem. In "Selling Crack in Spanish Harlem," he described a "culture of resistance" to mainstream society that had developed in the neighborhood

World Bank

an international bank that offers low-interest loans, advice, and information to developing nations

In her book, Never in Anger: Portrait of an Eskimo Family, Jean Briggs argues that

anger and strong negative emotions are not expressed among families that live together in small iglus amid harsh environmental conditions.

The study of human origins, evolution, and variation is known as

biological anthropology.

How does Milner see the Nacirema?

exotic, repulsive, confusing

Jane Goodall's work with nonhuman primates highlights the value of

field-based research

Mediascapes

flows of information through media and how it allows distant groups to view each other

Patrick Tyranny

found that people were different than Shagnon had portray and that Shagnon had misrepresented the people by inciting unrest and violence. The people were not remote but interacting and connected with others in the world

Industrialization

immense change: migration, wage labor, shifting family patterns

Phonemes

in language, the smallest distinctive sound unit letter "p"

Globalization

increasing pace and scope of interconnectedness of different parts of the world through common processes of economic, environmental, political, and cultural change

Wernicke's area

language comprehension

Lynn Kwiatkowsk

medical anthropology, gender, participant observation research

Anthony Kwame Harrison

mother struggled with adapting to American life, how race influences perceptions of popular music, what many of us see as normal, common and taken for granted, critiques of modernity What brought him to anthropology: difference and exotic, his family had immigrated to America --> his own upbringing, his mmother struggled to adapt to American life

financescape

movement of financial resources and money across borders

Modernity

newer is seen as a sign of progress

IMF (International Monetary Fund)

part of the UN makes loans to countries to finance development

Who gets to study whom?

power dynamics, idea that scholars from the developing world should study their own, while white students are not told to study their own, underrepresentation of minorities

Zhang Qian

recorded observations of cultures in Central Asia

Wet Rice

rice planted on dry land in a nursery and then moved to a deliberately flooded field to promote growth "green revolution"

broca's area

speech production

Why does culture feel so stable?

symbols, values, norms, traditions

critical relativism

taking a stance on a practice or belief only after trying to understand it in its cultural and historical context

pragmatics

the appropriate use of language in different contexts social and cultural aspects of meaning

Horticulture

the art or practice of garden cultivation and management. move their farm fields periodically limited technologies consumed by those who grow them slash and burn multi-cropping emphasis on the group status distinctions

Ethnoscape

the flow of people across boundaries.

Archeology

the study of ancient cultures based on artifacts and other remains

Biological Anthropology

the study of human biological variation in time and space

Jean Briggs

« Never in Anger. Portrait of an Eskimo Family » Inuit people, not angry 1960s

assess the relationship between globalization, neoliberalism, and neocolonialism

Globalization is forced on already marginal populations in peripheral nations through institutions like the IMF and World Bank. Globalization facilitates and amplifies the reach and impact of neoliberalism, a multi-faceted political and economic philosophy that emphasizes privatization and unregulated markets. Colonialism has given way to a neocolonialism in which economic force achieves what used to require military force with transnational corporations benefiting from the exploitation of poorer nations.

Explain the relationship between globalization and the creation of new "glocal" lifestyles and forms of consumption

Glocalization is the adaptation of global ideas into locally palatable forms. People have the ability to determine the ways that a new product or idea will be used, including many that are far different than what was originally intended. Transnational companies will adapt ideas to make profits in other areas. Globalization has increased a variety of goods available for individuals to purchase and people's awareness of products, thus expanding the range of identities that can be performed through their consumption habits.

Appraise the ways in which human intervention in the environment has made it difficult to separate the "natural" from the human-influenced environment.

Humans have been making environmental alterations for a long time and we have been domesticating the planet for thousands of years.

In order to study the similarities and differences among living societies and cultural groups, what must cultural anthropologists do?

Immersive fieldwork

Which of the following does NOT describe culture?

It is the genetic range of a society or subgroup.

Unique to human language (hocker)

-Discreteness: don't need gestures, minimal units of meaning -Quality of patterning -Optic displacement: can talk about topics that are not right in front of you -Creativity/productivity: everyday you can hear a new sentence

discuss the implications of globalization for anthropology

-Globalization results in urbanization -changes how and where research is conducted

Renato Rosaldo

pushed for reflexivity dismantle the western civilization requirement

Dry Rice

shifting cultivation, crop rotation, rainfall sloping, erosion small scale

Ethnocentrism Fallacies

-relies on "common sense" understandings of the world -rejects seeing ourselves as others see us -creates hierarchical descriptions of self and others

Identify the universal features of human languages and the design features that make them unique

1. All human cultures have a human language and use it to communicate 2. All human languages change over time, a reflection of the fact that all cultures are also constantly changing 3. All languages are systematic, rule driven, and equally complex overall, and equally capable of expressing any idea that the speaker wishes to convey. There are no primitive languages 4. All languages are symbolic systems 5. All languages have a basic word order of elements, like subject, verb, and object, with variations. 6. All languages have similar basic grammatical categories such as nouns and verbs 7. Every spoken language is made up of discrete sounds that can be categorized as vowels or consonants 8. The underlying structure of all languages is characterized by the feature duality of patterning, which permits any speaker to utter any message they need to convey, and others to understand

Explain the relationship between human language and culture

Human culture could not exist without language and language could not exist without culture. Humans think in language and do all cultural activities using language.

Benjamin Whorf

language; his hypothesis is that language determines the way we think

Sir E.B. Tylor

primitive culture, progress from primitive to civilized, end point resembled his own culture, evolutionary model, writings of scholars, missionaries

Critical age range hypothesis

research suggesting that a child will gradually lose the ability to acquire language naturally and without effort if he or she is not exposed to other people speaking a language until past the age of puberty. This applies to the acquisition of a second language as well.

foodways

structured beliefs and behaviors surrounding the production, distribution, and consumption of food

Colonialism

territorial rule, "civilizing project"

ideoscape

the global flow of ideas

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

the idea that different languages create different ways of thinking

language shift

the process by which a group of speakers abandons their native language in favor of another language

Syntax

the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language how to put morphemes together phrases or sentences

Culture

the set of basic values, perceptions, wants,symbols, and behaviors learned and shared. together, they form an all-encompassing, integrated whole that binds together and shapes their worldview and lifeways

sematics

the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning meanings of sentences

Cultural Anthropology

the study of people's communities, behaviors, beliefs, and institutions, including how people make meaning as they live, work, and play together

historical linguistics

the study of the development of language over time, including its changes and variations

What does Milner's essay say about the power of words we use to represent the lives of others?

the words used will influence how the audience imagines the culture, words have the power to make a group seem more primitive than they actually are. The language he uses makes the rituals of Americans seem unidentifiable and primitive. He makes a statement about the power of anthropologists and the American obsession with appearance.

Neolithic Revolution

(10,000 - 8,000 BCE) The development of agriculture and the domestication of animals as a food source. This led to the development of permanent settlements and the start of civilization.

Summarize how anthropologists transform their fieldwork data into a story that communicates meaning

Anthropologists use polyvocalitiy, or presenting more than one person's voice to avoid ethnographic authority and be more transparent. They also use reflexivity, or thinking carefully about the effects of their life experiences, to acknowledge that they are part of the world they study and they can never truly be objective.

Kathleen Kenyon

Archaeologist, Jericho/Holy Land

Identify the differences between armchair anthropology and participant-observer fieldwork and explain how Bronislaw Malinowski contributed to the development of anthropological fieldwork techniques

Armchair anthropology is when the anthropologists do not have any direct contact with the people they are studying. They rely on written accounts and opinions of others. With this technique, anthropologists tend to have enthnocentrist views because they view their culture as superior. Unlinke armchair anthropology, participant-observation involves traveling to a location, living among people, and observing their day-to-day lives. Bronislaw Malinowski lived with the Trobriand Islanders and observed life in their villages. By becoming personally involved with the people, Malinowski highlighted the importance to "grasp the native's point of view, his relations to life, to realize his vision of the world."

foraging

Behavior associated with recognizing, searching for, capturing, and consuming food. Hunting, fishing, gathering wild plant resources small groups highly mobile no leaders

Identify some contemporary ethnographic fieldwork techniques and perspectives

Cultural Relativism: the idea that we should seek to understand another person's beliefs and behaviors from the perspective of their culture rather than our own. Ethnocentrism: a perspective that has been rejected, the tendency to view one's own culture as most important and correct and as a stick to measure all other countries. Objectivity: some anthropologists feel that striving for objectivity in ethnography is paramount. That even if complete objectivity cannot be achieved, anthropologists' ethnography should be free from as much subjectivity as possible. Activist: some anthropologists produce anthropological research as a means of fighting for equality and justice for disempowered or voiceless groups. Science: using techniques and methods from the physical sciences and applying them to anthropological inquiry. Humanism: interpretive anthropology treats culture as a body of "texts" rather than trying to test a hypothesis. The tests present a particular picture from a particular subjective point of view. Methods: -observation, participant observation -conversations, interviews -gathering life histories -genealogical method -key informants -field notes

Compare and contrast the ideas of ethnocentrism and cultural relativism.

Ethnocentrism is an attitude based on the idea that one's own group or culture is better than any other. Ethnocentrism was prevalent in early anthropologists who used armchair anthropology, viewing a culture from a distance, which caused them to measure that culture from their viewpoint and make comparisons as though their culture is superior to the other. European ideas of right and wrong were used as a measuring stick to judge the ways different cultures lived their lives, and other cultures were often seen as "primitive." Cultural relativism is the idea that cultures cannot be objectively understood since all humans see the world through the lens of their own culture. Cultural relativism is different from ethnocentrism because it emphasizes understanding culture from an insider's view. This idea distinguished anthropology in the U.S. from Europe.

Discuss what is unique about ethnographic fieldwork and how it emerged as a key strategy in anthropology

Ethnography is an in-depth study of everyday practices and the lives of people. Ethnography is unique because it produces a thick description which explains not only the behaviors and cultural events but also the context in which they occur and anthropological interpretations of them. These descriptions can help readers better understand the logic of culture's behavior and why it is meaningful to them. Early anthropologists, like Sir E.B. Tylor and Sir James Frazer, practiced armchair anthropology, in which they did not actually interact with the community, so this was often inaccurate and biased. In the 20th century, there was a transition from armchair anthropology to ethnography. Early ethnographers, like Franz Boas, actually traveled to remote locations, yet they often went with a guide and did not spend significant time with the local people. Bronislaw Malinowski's method of participant-observation changed the relationship between ethnographers and the people studies, where the anthropologists began to interact and live among natives. Ethnographic fieldwork then began to involve the researchers participating in the daily lives of the local people.

Explain the relationship between the subsistence system used in a society and the amount of private property or wealth differences that develop.

Foraging: egalitarian social structure, foragers move camps frequently to exploit various resources, so holding onto "wealth" is impractical, high value on generosity Pastoralism: measure wealth according to the number of animals owned Horticulture: crops consumed by those who grow them or shared with the community, rather than sold for profit Agriculture: social class and wealth inequality, the more complex an economic system becomes, more opportunities to manipulate the economy to their own benefit

Identify the contributions Franz Boaz and his students made to the development of new theories about culture

Franz Boas is an American Anthropologist who redirected American anthropologists away from cultural evolution and toward cultural relativism, that a culture must be understood on its own terms rather than compared to an outsider's standard. Boas and his students added to Tylor's definition of culture, emphasizing the importance of enculturation, the process of learning culture, in the lives of individuals.

James Baldwin

Jazz music- pain in order to understand white people aren't able to reflect on themselves, inhibiting them from being able to look at conundrums elsewhere what we do and how we react is filtered through our experiences

Assess some of the anthropological issues that can arise from anthropological research

Malinowski's practice of going native presented problems from an ethical point of view. Participant-observation is a method to gather ethnographic data, but going native places both the anthropologist and the culture group at risk by blurring the lines on both sides of the relationship. Even when anthropologists are acting within the boundaries of profession ethics, they still struggle to set aside their own ethnocentric attitudes and prejudices. Napoleon Chagnon's controversy with him creating conflicts between Yanomami groups to study the violence show how a misrepresentation of the culture. Differences in perspective and theoretical orientation create unavoidable differences in the way anthropologists interpret the same situation. They must be truthful and represent the voice of the people.

Ibn Battuta

Moroccan Muslim scholar, the most widely traveled individual of his time. He wrote a detailed account of his visits to Islamic lands from China to Spain and the western Sudan.

evaluate the reasons why languages change and efforts that can be made to preserve endangered languages

One effect of globalization has often been the suppression of local languages in favor of the language of the more powerful colonizers. Migration and the mass movement of people has led to the loss of many languages as people assimilate. Schools, computers, social media, and technology can help preserve and revitalize endangered languages.

Indigenous cultures have archaeology too

Papua New Guinea- indigenous peoples have been interpreting their ancestral landscapes for generations

Lewis Henry Morgan

Pioneer cultural anthropology-- armchair anthropologist in Rochester, U.S. *unilinear cultural evolution theory of human development in which human societies evolved through 3 stages- savagery, barbarism, civilization

Describe the role that early anthropologists Sir James Frazer and Sir E. B. Tylor played in defining the concept of culture in anthropology.

Sir James Frazer used armchair anthropology to write his book on the religious beliefs of various cultures. His descriptions of these cultures did not include the perspective of those in the cultures though because he never visited them. Instead. he relied on the accounts of others who had traveled, like scholars, missionaries, and government officials. Sir E. B. Tylor also did not use any field work to study cultures, so his armchair anthropology also contributed to biases and misrepresentation of the cultures, not accurately getting the insider perspective and categorizing cultures as primitive. He helped develop a foundational definition of culture: "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." Tylor believed that cultures were subject to evolution, developing from simple to complex. These scholars helped to establish anthropology as a discipline, even though they did not actually visit the cultures.

Napoleon Shagnon

The fierce people started fights, incited unrest, harmed the community theory: before the emergence of the state, people's lives were brutish

Technoscape

The global configuration of technology and how it moves across various boundaries

Anthony Kwame Harrison argues that anthropology places taken-for-granted notions of progress within the broader context of human culture. What example does he give of a taken-for-granted notion of progress?

The increasing number of razor blades

What does the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis propose?

The language you speak allows you to think about some things and not others

Linguistic Anthropology

The study of human language in the past and present.

Assess the relationship between language variations and ethnic of cultural identity

The way people speak is an indicator of who they are, where they are from, and what social groups they identify with, as well as what particular situation they find themselves in, and what they want to accomplish with a specific interaction.

Instead of studying social groups that differ from their own, to where are cultural anthropologists increasingly turning their focus?

Their own societies and subgroups within them

Explain the difference between wild and domesticated resources and how plants and animals are domesticated.

Wild plant and animal food resources are already available in the environment, while domesticated species have been altered by human intervention.

Emic

approach of studying a culture's behavior from the perspective of an insider

Etic

approach of studying a culture's behavior from the perspective of an outsider

Franz Boas

father of modern American anthropology; argued for cultural relativism and historical particularism (understand universals within particulars) skeptic of racial superiority, social evolution, and ethnocentrism Need to understand groups in their own particular circumstances and histories

How is culture learned?

informed by knowledge (different sources) that people learn and put into practice, by integrating experience and generating behavior

cultural relativism

not judging a culture but trying to understand it on its own terms

Montgomery

objective view, works for U.S. military, problems: are anthropologists just extracting for careers, savior complex

Clifford Geertz

thick description, twitch vs. wink, culture includes symbols- anthropologists try to understand their meaning cock fight in Bali

Eric Wolf

urged anthropologists to see power as an aspect of all human relationships best known for his studies of peasants, Latin America, and his advocacy of Marxist perspectives within anthropology