Anthropology
Midrange Theory
- . Inferences made from past artifacts and knowledge. Important for anthropology due to limited things from certain past communities.
Interpretivist Approach
- A conceptual framework that sees culture primarily as a symbolic system of deep meaning. Not about purpose/function it's about how we develop a sense of mutual understanding. How we interpret culture based on our past culture exposure. How we interpret what happens where as inscription is just writing down exactly what happened.
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. Important tool for anthropologists have so their background doesn't fog their interpretation of another culture.
Participant Observation
- A key anthropological research strategy involving both participation in and observation of the daily life of the people being studied. When anthropologists become apart of the community. Important for collecting accurate data for anthropological research.
Structural functionalism
- Each part of society has a specific function that makes said society function properly. Important for anthropology, because it allows anthropologists to analyze which parts of society serve what function
Nacirema
- Horace miller wrote an article about america from an outside view so people could comprehend their own ethnocentrism. Was significant in anthropology to allow anthropologists become hyper aware about the way they write their ethnographies and how to ease up their ethnocentrism when studying culture.
HRAF
- Human relations area files, they promote understanding of cultural diversity. Important for anthropology due to easy access to an abundance of research.
Nature Lovers Clubs
- In Indonesia nature lovers club was seen as not status quo, lots of college students participated in it.
Zeros
- Parts of culture that are not seen yet are essential to understanding a society. Significant in anthropology because it showed how anthropologists need to immerse themselves fully in order to realize these essential zeros.
Uneven development
- The unequal distribution of the benefits of globalization. Important for anthropology for them to see the effects of the global north abusing the global south through globalization.
The Imponderabilia of actual life
- Things that you learn from observation and not interviewing someone. Changed way anthropologists went about their work, emphasised observation. little bits and pieces of life that fill up the structure. It's the connections between people, the meanings that are shared through actions and objects. Things that are not really thought about, we just accept them about the culture. Structures of culture have similarities but the little details the things that connect these larger structures that make these differences. Argonauts of the Western Pacific.
Fieldnotes
- What anthropologists take while they're in the field. Should include inscriptions. Important tool for future references for anthropologists.
The Field
- Where anthropologists do their work. Out in them cultures boy. Important to anthropology cause this be where they do their research .
Clifford Geertz
- Wrote thick description, passionate about participant observation. Helped anthropology by giving so much creds to participant observation.
Engaged Anthropology
- anthropology that includes political action as a major goal of fieldwork.
Bronislaw Malinowski
- believed that everything people do serves a purpose in that culture. Helped anthropology by pushing for long fieldwork
Flexible Accumulation
- companies get parts from all over the world to make a product. I.e. a muffler is made in mexico but the part is used to build a car in america. Enabled by modern technology. Important in anthropologist studies on the effect of globalization in third world countries where the global north is exploiting their labour to make these parts for their products.
Epistemology
- investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion
'A hair in the flour'
- mainly used to to describe causing a disruption, even if it on a small scale, it's about making an impact
A Grand Idée
- thick description, discusses how big ideas don't necessarily fit into and explain everything about a culture or every culture, but they can help us learn things about different cultures. Big ideas don't explain everything about something but it gives a broad overview of it that assists in our understanding.
Economy of Appearances
- we are creating economies purely based on the appearance. Key in anthropology in friction when people sell appearance versus actual goods
Thick Description
: A research strategy that combines detailed description of cultural activity with an analysis of the layers of deep cultural meaning in which those activities are embedded
Primatology
: The study of living nonhuman primates as well as primate fossils to better understand human evolution and early human behavior
Kinship analysis
A fieldwork strategy of examining interlocking relationships of power built on marriage and family ties.
Built Environment vs. Zeros -
Built environment: The intentionally designed features of human settlement, including buildings, transportation, and public service infrastructure, and public spaces. Zeros: Elements of a story or a picture that are not told or seen and yet offer key insights into issues that might be too sensitive to discuss or display publicly. Ex→ Zeros of this class would be everything outside, doing hw, registering for this class
Flexible Accumulation:
what corporations as well as other organizations use to bring all the materials together but now we can order parts all over the world
Etic
Description of local behavior and beliefs from the anthropologist's perspective in ways that can be compared across cultures
Thick Description-
Geertz wrote, that thick description results from a scientific observation of any particular human behavior that describes not just the behavior, but its context as well, so that the behavior can be better understood by an outsider. High emphasis on participation observation. Changed the way people studied cultures, more involved when studying them. Behavior plus culture, interpretation and inscription
AAA
The American Anthropologist association. Providers hub for anthropologists in america to find jobs, read research and get internships.
Hegemony
The ability of a dominant group to create consent and agreement within a population without the use or threat of force
Holism
The anthropological commitment to look at the whole picture of human life -- culture, biology, history, and language -- across space and time
Argonauts of the Western Pacific
The author emphasis participant observation. Cultures need to be studied more directly and cultures are not dying off they are just constantly changing. Important in anthropology because it perpetuates the idea of the importance of participant observation.
Friction-
The awkward, unequal, unstable, and creative qualities of interconnection across difference. Friction is in everything, globalization causes friction. There is friction of ideas, when things conflict. When two groups of people,ideas,concepts, come together and what happens when they come together. Focuses on global. Changes how we study and identify culture.
Ethnocentrism
The belief that one's own culture or way of life is normal & natural; using one's own culture to evaluate and judge the practices and ideals of others. Significant in anthropology to understand that different peoples viewpoints on the world due to their culture.
Anthropocene:
The current historical era in which human activity is reshaping the planet in permanent ways
Unilineal cultural evolution
The idea that all cultures evolve that same way. Believed that Western culture is the contemporary pinnacle of social evolution. Significant in anthropology due to racism coming from this definition, seeing other cultures not evolved as us giving the western world justification for being "superior". Proven inaccurate later on.
Built Environment:
The intentionally designed features of human settlement, including buildings, transportation and public service infrastructure, and public spaces
Polyvocality:
The practice of using many different voices in ethnographic writing and research question development, allowing the reader to hear more directly from the people in the study
Enculturation:
The process of learning culture
Linguistic Anthropology
The study of human language in the past and the present
Unilineal Cultural Evolution:
The theory proposed by nineteenth-century anthropologists that all cultures naturally evolve through the same sequence of stages from simple to complex
Stratification
The uneven distribution of resources and privileges among participants in a group or culture
Four-field approach
The use of four interrelated disciplines to study humanity: physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and cultural anthropology. Important for anthropology because it clearly defines subfields of the study that people can specialize in.
Descriptive anthropology
Those who analyze languages and their component parts
Historic Linguistics:
Those who study how language changes over time within a culture and how languages travel across cultures
Sociolinguistics:
Those who study language in its social and cultural contexts
Time-Space Compression-
When relative distances between places becoming smaller due to modern technology, like airplanes. Important for anthropology due to increasing globalization through cultures, it's easier for the world to be connected.
Salvage Ethnography-
collecting as much information as possible on a culture before it dies off. Significant for anthropology due to creating a new field and importance for documenting almost dead cultures which we now have information on due to salvage ethnography.
Webs of meaning-
geertz wrote that, animals are suspended in webs of significance that he himself has spun." He pictures culture as those webs. Significant in anthropology due to making sense of organizational activity.
Time Space Compression:
how time and space are compressed: across seas to communicate media, and transportation technologies
Inductive vs. Deductive Research-
inductive: take a hypothesis and try to prove or disprove it with observations and research, become more specific deductive: start with observations, more exploratory research, then make a claim to prove or disprove
Emic
something internal of a culture, how they view the world (etic: outward, looking from outside in), looking inside out
Four Field approach
the use of four interrelated disciplines to study humanity: physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and cultural anthropology
Winks vs. Blinks -
How we look at a situation, social norms and contexts that we associate with different actions Blinking is just a normal action that we do whereas winking is an intentional action that we do to either attract someone's attention or make a gesture
Franz Boas
Implemented scientific study to anthropology, known as the father of anthropology. Significant in anthropology for developing a more scientific approach to the field. His cultural theory influenced generation such as salvage ethnography and historical Particularism Cultural Relativism
Materialisms vs. Mentalisms-
Materialism: refers to to the new (or renewed) emphasis in anthropology on the effects of environment and allocation of resources. Created new fields of interest such as; environment, economy, and history. Mentalisms: refers to he more political and ideological side of cultural issues. Created new field of interest such as; politics, performance, and identity
Ethnographic fieldwork is the primary strategy anthropologists use to study culture. Using either Barbara Myerhoff's study Number One Days or Sienna Craig's "Portrait of a Himalayan Healer" describe some of the main characteristics of ethnographic fieldwork and some of the specific methods the author uses to study a particular culture
Myerhoff's heritage allowed her to have a new perspective when doing her anthropological work. She taught a class at a center in the community called, "Living History" as part of her ethnographic fieldwork in which she gathered dozens of life stories from the elderly. This style of ethnographic fieldwork allowed her to gather an accumulation of data on this slowly dieing community. Her ethnographic fieldwork allowed her to gather an immense amount of data for her salvage ethnographic work. With this class, it allowed many elderly member of the community to be apart of her study without them feeling as so, the elderly just enjoyed having a space to tell their stories and Myerhoff needed information on the community. Her method of fieldwork gave both the elderly and herself something to benefit from.
Norms vs. values-
Norms: Ideas or rules about how people should behave in particular situations or toward certain other people. Values: Fundamental beliefs about what is important, what makes a good life, and what is true right, and beautiful.
Anonymity
Protecting the identities of the people involved in a study by changing or omitting their names or other identifying characteristics.
Qualitative vs. quantitative data-
Quantitative data statistical information about a community that can be measured and compared, done by a computer, technology run researcher uses tools; questionnaires or equipment to collect data numbers and statistics more efficient, able to test hypotheses, but many miss contextual detail Qualitative data descriptive data drawn from non-statistical sources, including personal stories, interviews, life histories, and participant observation, story to connect to data, run by the individual researcher is the data-gathering instrument words, pictures, or objects more 'rich' time consuming and less able to be generalized
Emic vs. Etic-
Emic: looking at culture from inside out, more personable Etic: looking at culture form the outside, observing, not getting the connections just describing the structures anthropologists want to look at both, want to take into account both perspectives, relates to ethnographic study, fieldwork etc.
Ethnologies vs. ethnographies vs monographs-
Ethnologies: is a comparative study, to find patterns across realms of culture. One can use ethnographies for an ethnology, cause ethnology compares people. Ethnographies: the systematic study of people and cultures Monographs: attempts to describe the entire culture of people
First vs. Second generation of Boasians -
First generation:trained before WW1, focus on historicism and the institutionalization of anthropology Second generation focused on psychological/ personality studies on contemporary cultures and popular interest/ issues
Franz Boas is often called the father of American anthropology. Describe some of the specific ways he influenced the study of culture and future generations of anthropologists.
First off, he was the first man to apply the scientific method to American anthropology. He assisted in institutionalizing anthropology making it from being an academics hobby to an actual major. He taught at Columbia university where he passed down his ideas of intense visits upon culture where he prioritized participant observation. After his teaching he had influenced many generations who were separated according to their main beliefs and were called first generation bosnians, second generation bosains, and so on. He also introduced, salvage ethnography prioritizing studying cultures who were "dying off" and Historical Particularism Cultural Relativism which was understanding a group's beliefs and practice within their own cultural context. Without making judgments. Overall, Franz Boas had a one of the biggest impacts on anthropology and changed the field for generations to come.
In the past thirty years, various trends and forces have led to an increasingly globalized world. Describe how globalization has changed our understanding of culture and how it is studied. Use examples from one of the articles in the first chapter of Cultural Anthropology: A reader for a Global Age. Be sure to include a discussion of at least one of the specific characteristics of globalization (time-space compression, flexible accumulation, increasing migration, uneven development).
Globalization has had increasing effects over the years as the world becomes seemingly smaller and smaller due to a time-space compression. Time- Space compression being that with modern telecommunication and travel the time it takes to get from place to place around the world becomes smaller hence, making the world a smaller place. With this increasing globalization it changes the way people study culture because there are limited (if any) societies that have not had any connection with the outside world. Most countries and cultures now have some western influence within them. In the article, Himalayan Healer the author goes through the daily lives of two brothers who work in traditional medicine clinics. In their seemingly isolated community the effects of globalization can be seen everywhere as the author describes the mounds of medicines and household items that are foreign to Nepal. As Craigs stayed among Gyatso and Tenzin she is continuously surprised of the influence from the 'outside' world.
Understanding mental maps of reality are important when anthropologists conduct studies of particular cultures. Give the definition of this term and describe how Horace Miner uses this idea to challenge the reader's ethnocentrism when observing cultures. Mental maps of reality is the personal ideas we use to categorize things. Put them in relation to each other.
Horace Miner the Nacirema guy who deconstructed our own mental maps of reality, he flipped it around a little bit. What does this do for the reader? It challenges our ethnocentrism. Most people did not study Americans. Challenges the idea of norms, that american culture is normal culture
