Anthropology 101: Second Test

Transformational Generative Grammar

A linguistic theory proposing that universal rules generate underlying structures that may be transformed by rules to derive the specific sentence forms of each language.

Horticulture

A method of cultivation in which hand tools powered by human muscles are used and in which land use is extensive

Historical-Comparative Linguistics

Deals with cross culture issues, data material and turn to primary resources Looks to historical processes to find meaning.

Cultural Ecology

Geographic approach that emphasizes human-environment relationships.

Hunting and Gathering

How people survived before the Neolithic revolution; The killing of wild animals and fish as well as the gathering of fruits, roots, nuts, and other plants for sustenance.

Neolithic

(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.

Creole

American born descendants of Europeans

Homo Sapies Neandertalensis

Neandertals

Morphology

Refers to its rules for word formation. Are the smallest combination of sounds that have a meaning. Prepositions, prefixes, suffixes, and whole words. Structure of words.

Phonology

Refers to what language sounds like. Are the smallest units of sound in a language

Stratified

Location: Epidermis, Lining the openings of open tracts (mouth esophagus, vagina and anal canal);n where friction currently takes place

Blade Cultures

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Symbols

Arbitrary words and non-verbal signs that bear no natural connection with the things they describe; their meaning is learned within a given culture.

Mesolithic

Belonging to the period of human culture from about 15,000 years ago to about 7000 BCE characterized by complex stone tools and greater social organization - "middle stone age"

Microliths

Small stone tools usually produced from narrow blades punched from a core; found especially in africa during the latter part of the pleistocene.

Lower Paleolithic

The oldest part of the period during which hominids... the first stone tools were created and used, beginning with the Oldowan Complex.

Protolanguage

Language ancestral to several daughter languages

Syntax

Language rules that govern how words can be combined to form meaningful phrases and sentences

Lithic Technique

Lithic reduction involves the use of a hard hammer precursor, such as a hammerstone, a soft hammer fabricator (made of wood, bone or antler), or a wood or antler punch to detach lithic flakes from a lump of tool stone called a lithic core (also known as the "objective piece").

Mousterian

Middle Paleolithic of industries of Europe/North Africa/Middle East - named for Le Moustier in southwestern France, 300,000 to 30,000 years ago; cared for elderly (old man who could not have survived on own), burials; perferators, side scrapers, bifaces, "levallois technique" = forming final tool on core before you remove it, create negative image. A culture from the Middle Paleolithic ("Middle Old Stone Age") period that appeared throughout Europe after 250,000 and before 30,000 years ago. Mousterian artifacts are frequently associated with Neanderthal human remains.

Single Origin

Modern humans arose in East Africa then spread of dispersed from there and completely displaced other pre-modern forms including neanderthals.

Progressive Neandertals

More like modern humans. Modern human skull.

Acheulian

Pertaining to a stone tool industry from the Early and Middle Pleistocene, characterized by a large propotion of bifacial tools (flaked on both sides). These tool kits are common in Africa, Southwest Asia, and Western Europe, but they're thought to be less common elsewhere. Tool culture of homo erectus and archaic h. sapiens. pear-shaped hand axes tool culture of homo erectus and archaic h. sapiens. pear-shaped hand axes and cleavers. Derived from the French village of St. Acheul, where these tools were first identified; Lower Paleolithic tool tradition associated with H. erectus.

Ranked

Society with hereditary inequality but lacking social stratification

Resource Managment

Strategic decision making about who should extract resources and in what ways, so that resources are used wisely and not wasted.

Pidgin

..., A form of speech that adopts a simplified grammar and limited vocabulary of a lingua franca, used for communications among speakers of two different languages.

Ethnolinguistics

A branch of linguistics that studies the relationships between language and culture and how they mutually influence and inform each other.

Upper Paleolithic

A cultural period usually associated with modern humans, but also found with some Neandertals, and distinguished by technological innovation in various stone tool industries. Best known from western Europe, similar industries are also known from central and eastern Europe and Africa.

Dialect

A regional variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation.

Foraging

A style of life in which people gain food by gathering plant products, trapping or catching small animals and birds, and hunting larger prey.

Sociolinguistics

A subfield of anthropological linguistics emphasizing the study of the social correlates to variations in speech.

Open System

A system in which both matter and energy are exchanged with its surroundings (for example, natural ecosystems).

Closed System

A system in which energy, but not matter, is exchanged with its surroundings.

Percussion Flaking

A technique for producing stone artifacts by striking or knapping crystalline stone with a hard or soft hammer

Pastoralism

A type of agricultural activity based on nomadic animal husbandry or the raising of livestock to provide food, clothing, and shelter.

Nomadism

A type of cyclical movement. This is a type of movement that is a matter of survival, culture, and tradition. Its becoming less and less common.

Egalitarian

Affirming, promoting, or characterized by belief in equal political, economic, social, and civil rights for all people.

Linguistic Nationalism

The attempt by ethnic minorities and even countries to proclaim independence by purging their language of foreign terms.

Oldowan

The earliest stone tools. Simple chopping tools and sharp flakes, Oldowan tools date to about 2.4 million years ago. These tools were probably made by Homo habilis. Some evidence suggests they may also have been produced by Paranthropus robustus (sometimes labeled Australopithecus robustus). Allowed them to eat meat and progressed to smaller teeth.

Middle Paleolithic

Cultural period that began about 200,000 ya and ended around 30,000-40,000 years ago. Roughly the same period in sub-Saharan Africa is called Middle Stone Age. The middle part of the Old Stone Age characterized by the development of the Mousterian tradition of tool making and the earlier Levalloisian traditions. The middle part of the Old Stone Age, associated with Mousterian tools, which Neandertals produced using the Levallois technique.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Edward Sapir's and Benjamin Whorf's hypothesis that language creates ways of thinking and perceiving A hypothesis concerning the role of language in shaping our interpretation of reality. It holds that language is culturally determined. A theory claiming that language influences perception. Example: people who are into decorating can distinguish color by descriptive adjectives i.e. pearl white.

Innate

Existing from birth, inborn

Broad Spectrum Collecting

The exploitation of varied food resources in local environments The utilization of a broad spectrum of resources

Multiregional

The hypothesis that modern humans originated through a process of simultaneous local transition from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens throughout the inhabited world

Descriptive Linguistics

The scientific study of a spoken language, including its phonology, morphology, lexicon, and syntax. Mechanics of Language

Signals

a gesture, expression, or sound that gives direction, instruction, or information

Pressure Flaking

a technique of stone tool manufacture in which a bone, antler, or wooden tool is used to press, rather than strike off, small flakes from a piece of flint or similar stone

Classic Neandertals

early specimens and those from Eastern Europe and Asia are less robust

Agriculture

Large scale cultivation using plows harnessed to animals or more powerful energy sources Agriculture

Band

A fallacy in which one is attracted to a popular party, faction, or cause that attracts growing support; following the crowd rather than using evidence to justify a conclusion.

Metaphor

A figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity.

Scavenging

A form of to scavenge, which means "to look for food" or "to feed on decaying matter" To eat or find food that other animals killed. Was the catalyst for our evolution.

Sedentism

A lifestyle associated with residence in permanent villages, towns, and cities, generally linked with the emergence of farming

Pebble Chopper

A pebble tool with an irregular cutting edge formed through the removal of flakes from one side of a stone.