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