Anthropology 100

culture-bound

viewing the world and reality based on the assumptions and values of one's own culture.

kinship terms

words used to refer to people who are members of the same family that indicate their relationship with other members

Culture

It includes all the customs, traditions, beliefs and behavior of a group passed down to the next generations.

Lakota

Lived in the interior of the United States (the Great Plains) -Is a Native American tribe An example of mana (animatism), wakonda

Early Writings in Mesoamerica

Olmec hieroglyphics originated in Veracruz, Mexico ca 1st millenium BC

Origins of Writing in China

Oracle bones (ca. 1200 B.C)

Sacred Places

Places that are considered to be spiritually significant or even sacred. Examples: North America- Bear Butte Kenya- Mount Kenya Greece- Mount Olympus Japan- Mount Fuji

Matching

Polytheism- Pantheon of gods Sacred places- Apus Shaman- altered state of consciousness Contagious magic- Relic

This is NOT a field technique of ethnography

Problem-instigating research.

Eating Christmas in the Kalahari

Richard B. Lee; !Kung, Kalahari, Africa Anthropologist buys an ox that is huge Natives keep telling him it is too small Turns out it is a custom to avoid arrogance and tell others their kill is small Cross Cultural misunderstanding

linguistic determinism

Sapir Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think

alphabet

Semitic sounds combined with Egyptian hieroglyphics. Phoenician, Greek, Roman.

Animatism

The belief that nature is enlivened or energized by an impersonal spiritual force or supernatural energy.

Proxemics

The cross-cultural study of humankind's perception and use of space.

Gender

The cultural elaborations and meanings assigned to the biological differentiation between sexes. male or female.

core vocabulary

The most basic and long-lasting words in any language-pronouns, lower numerals, and names for body parts and natural objects.

Melanesia

The most populous of the three groups of Pacific islands, includes Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and others. -Cargo Cult

Cultural Anthropology

The study of customary pattern in a human behavior, thoughts and feelings. It focuses on human behavior, thought and feelings. It focuses on humans as culture-producing and culture reproducing creatures.

!Kung people

The ǃKung are a part of the San people who live mostly on the western edge of the Kalahari desert, Ovamboland. (Eating Xmas in Kalahari)

All cultures are by nature ethnocentric.

True

In the article "Haiti's Living Dead", the author argues that zombification is a means of social control

True

Some biological/physical anthropologists study primates.

True

The study of Indo-European languages assumes that Indian and European languages have the common ancestor.

True

Linguistic Anthropology

Understanding the processes of human communication (verbal and non-verbal). Expression of culture through language. Symbols and meanings. Cognitive behavior and language. Verbal art and performance, and language and education.

Oral societies

- Story-telling, conflict resolution, religious practioners -Good speaking ability -Trained as kids in memorizing genealogies, ritual prayers and customary laws. -oratory devices

Cargo cult

-A spiritual movement in Melanesia reacting to disruptive contact with Western capitalism. -Promises resurrection of deceased relatives , enslavement of white foreigners and the magical arrival of utopian riches.

3 branches of linguistics anthropology

-Descriptive -Historical -Social and Cultural

Religious Specialists

-Guide and supplément the religious practices of others. -Skilled at communicating with supernatural being. -Special training and May have special personality traits.

Function of culture

-Holds strategies for the production and distribution of goods and services considered necessary in life. -Ensure the biological continuity of its member and provide a social structure for reproduction. -Pass on knowledge and enculturate new members.

Theoretical Perspectives

-Idealist -Materialist -Structural-functionalist

Functions of Witchcraft

-In many cultures, witchcraft is a necessary belief to deal with the unknown. -Personalized evil helps explain personal sufferings and things which have no cause. -Witch hunts serve as communal social cleansing of immoral behavior of the whole community.

Lost in Translation

-Lera Boroditsky, Professor of Psychology @ Stanford, Editor in Chief of "Frontiers in Cultural Psychology". Lera Boroditsky discusses how language can affect the way we think and our cultural values. Boroditsky asks whether language makes people think in different ways and have different beliefs. She believes that the tongues we speak can offer explanations on cultural and individual aspects. She observes different verb choices in different languages like English, Indonesian, Russian, and Turkish to show how the languages are unique from each other. Boroditsky then goes on to speak of the Pormpuraawans, a group of indigenous people in Pormpuraaw, Australia. She discusses how there is no "right" or "left" in their language, instead the Pormpuraawans base placement by absolute cardinal directions meaning north, south, east, west, etc. -There is a connection between language and thought.

In the article "Tricking and Tripping", the author Claire Sterk faced what types of obstacles?

-Mistrust from the women working on the streets as well as their pimps.

2 Approaches of Languages in Social and Cultural Settings

-Sociolinguistics -Ethno-linguistic

My Two Minds

-The author Catherine de Lange was raised in a bilingual household where her mother mother is French and her father is English. -She believes that her being raised bilingual gave her a cognitive boost and may have influenced a higher ability to multitask and solve problems efficiently. -Memories, values and personality may all be heavily affected by the fact that a person is capable of speaking two different languages. -The opposing side is since the 19th century, it is believed that teaching a child two languages could be detrimental to their development.

"Losing Our Religion"

-The author, "Graham Lawton", suggests that social safety nets and greater levels of social equality probably account for more irreligiosity than analytical reasoning. -Existential threats and crisis correlate with higher rates of belief in god/s. -Poor countries tend to be more religious, while wealthier countries are not. -We can tell whether a person grows up to be religious by whether their parents are religious or not.

In the article "Eating Christmas in Kalahari", the author described great frustrations with what kind of behavior of the !Kung people he studied?

-Their way of humiliating his purchase of a big ox.

Function of Religion

-To provide dietary rules -To provide answers about the unexplained. -To give guidelines for social behaviors

The secret of Haiti's living dead

-Written by Gino Del Guercio. -The story illustrated through the examination of zombies Haitian voodoo culture. The articles describes a search by a Harvard student named Wade Davis for a drug-causing zombie-like effect. -Zombies are a fact of Haitian culture and he also found out that there is a secret society that is responsible for policing the society and the treat of zombification is a threat to keep the society under control.

Salem

-known for Salem witch trials

4 states of revitalization movement

1. Normal state 2. State of increased stress 3. Deterioration and breakdown of cultural structures. 4. Period of restoration and revitalization.

Subfields of Biological Anthropology

1. Paleoanthropology 2. Human osteology 3. Forensic anthropology 4. Primatology 5. Anthropological genetics 6. Human biology/human adaptation

3 stages of rites of passage

1. Separation 2. Transition 3. Incorporation

Ethnographic fieldwork methods

1. Site selection 2. Research 3. Participant observation 4. Ethnographic tools (recorder, camera, etc,.) 5. Data collecting -Quantitative/ Qualitative data -Surveys -Mapping -Photography/ Filming -Interviewing. Interviewing: -formal/informal interviews -open-ended/closed questions -helpful devices. 6. Challenges -Social acceptance in the community -Political changes -Gender, age, sex, skin color 7. Writing an ethnography.

Hopi

A Native American tribe in the southwest who were farmers, lived in pueblos, and were excellent builders and potters. Descendants of the Anasazi.

Kalahari Desert

A desert in southwestern Africa - largely Botswana

Ethnography

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

Pantheon

A group of gods; a group of people so accomplished in a skill or field that they seem like gods

healer

A religious specialist who concentrates on healing

Ethnicity

A social division based on national origin, religion, language, and often race.

ethnology

A study of cultures from a comparative or historical point of view, using ethnographic accounts and theories to explain why there are differences and similarities between groups.

Kinesics

A system of notating and analyzing postures, facial expressions, and body motions that convey messages.

Witchcraft

An explanation of events based on how certain individuals possess a psychic power capable of causing harm, including sickness and death.

Polytheism

Belief in many gods

Monotheism

Belief in one God

Ethnocentrism

Belief in the superiority of one's nation or ethnic group.

Animism

Belief that nature is animated by distinct spirits being separable from bodies.

Some Subfields of Archeological Anthropology

Ceramic/lithic specialists, underwater archeology Botanical Gender Biological

Rituals and Ceremonies

Certain events with religious significance that have activities performed in a set order. -Religious and non-religious -Help people relate to the supernatural. -Relieve social tension.

Tricking and Tripping: Fieldwork on Prostitution in the Era of AIDS

Claire E Sterk spent years getting to know prostitutes in New York. She had to go through pimps, got beat up once Also went through dealers and talked with prostitutes in crackhouses Classified prostitutes into streetwalkers, hooked prostitutes, prostituting addicts, and crack prostitutes. Article outlined the process of her becoming intimate with the women. Struggles of finding an in, especially in such a dangerous world. Also, the struggle of leaving the field and her new friends behind. Felt bad that she always had a place to go home to and most of the time the women she was studying did not.

Spirituality

Concern with the sacred, as distinguished from material matters.

Attributes of Culture

Culture is learned. Culture is shared. Culture is based on symbols. Culture is integrated. Culture is dynamic.

North America

Culture of religious practioners (shaman) and animatism, navajo waitchcraft (skin walkers).

A researcher who is trying to determine how many words for snow exist among the Eskimo is practicing

Descriptive linguistics

Idealist

How human's ideas, such as beliefs or values, shape society.

Glottochronology

In linguistics, a method for identifying the approximate time that languages branched off from a common ancestor; based on analyzing core vocabularies.

Interviewing

a direct method of gathering information from a human source that allows for questions to adapt to responses

Indo-European languages

a family of several hundred related languages and dialects

social dialects

a form of speech used by a group within a society characterized especially by the socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and/or gender of the speakers

priest/priestess

a full-time religious specialist formally recognized for his or her role in guiding the religious practices and for contacting supernatural powers

language family

a group of similar languages

Inca

a member of a South American Indian people living in the central Andes before the Spanish conquest.

revitalization movements

a movement for radical cultural reform in response to widespread social disruption and collective feeling of distress.

Shaman

a person who enters an altered state of consciousness, at will, to contact a hidden reality to help others.

participant observation

a research method in which investigators systematically observe people while joining them in their routine activities

rites of intensification

a ritual that takes place during a crisis in the life of the group and serves to bind individuals together Examples: war, drought, epidemic, death,...

writing system

a set of visible or tactile signs used to represent units of language in a systematic way

Symbol

a sign, emblem, or other thing that is arbitrarily linked to something else and represents it in a meaningful way.

Religion

a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny

Anthropology

a study or the variety and variability among and between human societies and cultures. uses comparative methods: across geographic regions and over long period of time.

Gesture-call system

a system of non-verbal communication using varying combinations of sound, body language, scent, facial expression, and touch.

Which pf the following is NOT an example of the participant observation method?

a. Dancing in the festival b. Singing in a ritual c. Taking part in a hunt d. Refusing to be a part of any communal activity Answer: d

syntax

patterns or rules by which morphemes are arranged into phrases and sentences.

Ethnic groups

people who collectively and publicly identify themselves as a distinct group based on various cultural features such as shared ancestry and common origins, language, customs and traditional beliefs.

language revival

an attempt to halt or reverse the decline of a language or to revive an extinct one

Signal

an instinctive sound or gesture that has a natural or self-evident meaning.

Social Structure

any relatively stable pattern of social behavior.

contagious magic

based on the idea that things or persons once in contact can afterwards influence each other.

Haiti

country in the Caribbean. Example of zombification

superstructure

examples: politics, religion, and ideology.

gesture

facial expressions and body postures and motions that convey intended as well as subconscious messages

Sign language uses which two component

gestures and symbols

Materialist

human behavior is part of nature and therefore, it can be understood by using the methods of natural science.

Sociolinguistics

investigates relationships between social and linguistic variation

society

is a collection of individuals with their own needs must balance the needs of the individuals and the needs of the larger groups.

Imitative magic (sympathetic magic)

magic based on the principle that like produces like

body language

nonverbal communication through gestures, facial expressions, behaviors, and posture

language

our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

Social control mechanism

requires all communities members to present their bad behavior

Two types of rituals

rites of passage and rites of intensification

rites of passage

rituals that mark an important stage in an individual's life cycle, like birth, marriage, or death. accomplishes symbolizing the beginning of a new stage in life.

Structural

sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability

Morpheme

smallest unit of meaning example: cow/cows

phoneme

smallest unit of sound that makes a different in meaning. Example: bit/pit butter/budder

Paralanguage

specific voice effects that accompany speech and contribute to communication

ancestral spirits

spirits of the deceased are playing an active role in the living world Example: in China, ancestor veneration

ethno linguistics

study of language as a part of culture

Morphology

study of patterns and rules or word formations in a language. Example: verb tense, pluralization, compound words.

infrastructure

subsistence, living needs Examples: housing, food, water,...

memory devices

techniques to help you recall the information you need to study

linguistic nationalism

the attempt by ethnic groups and even countries to proclaim independence by purging their language of foreign terms

worldview

the collective body of ideas that members of a culture generally share concerning the ultimate shape and substance of reality.

linguistic divergence

the development of different languages from a single ancestral language -Selective borrowing -Professional specialization -Technological breakthrough

grammar

the entire formal structure of a language, including morphology and syntax

language loss

the extinction of languages that have very few speakers

magic

the idea that supernatural powers can be compelled to act in certain way for good or evil purpose.

cultural relativism

the practice of judging a culture by its own standards

Enculturation

the process by which culture is transmitted from one generation to another.

Linguistics

the scientific study of language

holistic approach

the study of a whole culture completely.

Archeological Anthropology

the study of human behavior through material remains. also include studies of modern, historical and ethnographic populations to understand past human behavior.

Biological Anthropology

the study of humans as biological organisms, including evolution and contemporary variation.

Phonology

the study of language sounds

historical linguistics

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

descriptive linguistics

the study of the sounds, symbols, and gestures of a language, and their combination into forms that communicate meaning

Phonetics

the systematic identification and description of distinctive speech sounds in a language Example: th, r, sch, clicking sounds

Priest are religious specialists that altered states of conciousness

False

Understanding the development of languages is the topic of archeological anthropology.

False. It is linguistic anthropology

Lakota speaking people have what type of language pattern

Gendered speech

Origins of Writing in Egypt

Hieroglyphics ca. 3100 BC

Culture and change

Every culture will change at some point but there are several factors that can account for the changes which might be minor or major. -Environmental changes. -Violent or forced change from an outside party. Values, ideas, or perceptions change overtime.

Data

Facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis

4 fields of anthropology

cultural archeological biological linguistic

Origins of writing in Mesopotamia

cuneiform 3500 BC

Gendered speech

distinct male and female speech patterns that vary across social and cultural settings

Subculture

distinctive sets of standards and behavior patterns by which a group within a larger society operates.