Anthropology Exam 2 Chapters 8-14
Phonology
- write down speech utterances as sound sequences and identify which sounds affect meaning, which sound sequences are allowed in a languages and what usually unconscious rules predict those sequences - study of sounds in language and how they are used
Origin of Languages
-Actual development of language is neither completely biologically determined nor dependent on a system of writing - languages of simpler societies are equally as complex as those of developed societies -All languages possess amount of vocab their speakers need - all languages expand in response to cultural changes -Child is equipped from birth with capacity to reproduce all sounds used by the world's languages and to learn any system of grammar - ability that gives way to cultural influence around the age of 1 year
Communication
-All systems of communication require a common and shared system of symbols, signs, or behaviors -Humans rely heavily on spoken language to communicate - major way culture is transmitted -Any system of language consists of publicly accepted symbols by which individuals try to share private experiences and thoughts - human language much more than symbolic communication -Other animal species communicate through sound, chemicals and body movement - some use symbolic communication - humans have much more complexity in systems of communication
Cities and States in Iraq
-Early state societies arose in what is now southern Iraq and southwestern Iran -Burial sites, in formative era, reflect differences in status -Villages specialized in production of particular goods - temples centers of political and religious authorities for several communities
How and Why Cultures Change
-Examining history of society will reveal culture changed over time - description of culture is particular to that time -Good deal of culture change may be stimulated by changes in external environment -Inventions and discovers when accepted by societies can change the culture - can be intentional and unintentional
Descriptive Languages
-Grammar to linguist consists of the actual, often unconscious, principles that predict how most people talk, which linguists study through phonology morphology and syntax -Language important in understanding the beliefs, attitudes, values and worldview of people - behaviors also cannot be readily understood without verbal interpretation
Writing and Literacy
-Humans spent most of time on earth without written language -Far more literature and information can be preserved for a longer period of time with a writing system -Earliest writing systems - 6000 years ago - associated with early city states - systematic record keeping -Universal literacy is far from achieved today - high degree of literacy concerted superior to illiteracy -Attainment of literacy critical to success nowadays
Permanent Communities
-In Europe, the Near East, Africa and Peru, the switch to broad-spectrum collecting seems to be associated with more permanent communities -In Mesoamerica - domestication of plants and animals preceded permanent settlements
Negative Effects of Globalization
unemployment, native people's loss of land, increasing class inequality, undernutrition and starvation, spread of disease
Dialects
variety of language spoken in a particular area or by a particular social group
field dependent
who situation is focused on - agriculture
Cognates
words or morphs that belong to different languages but have similar sounds and meanings
Globalization
worldwide spread of cultural features - particularly in economics and trade -Cultures are changing in similar directions - more commercial, urban and international
Phoneme
a sound or set of sounds that makes a difference in meaning to the speakers of the language
Open System
all human languages that use a large set of symbols to combine to produce new meanings
Domestication
changes in plants and animals to make them more useful to humans - without human assistance domesticated plants and animals cannot reproduce
Pidgin languages
combine features of various languages without basic components such as prepositions or auxiliary verbs - may or may not develop into full language
Lexicon
consists of words and morphs and their meanings - a free morpheme can be a separate world - a bound morpheme displays its meaning only when attached to another morpheme
Adaptive Customs
cultural traits that enhance survival and reproductive success in a particular environment
Teotihuacan
developed later in Valley of Mexica - influenced much of Mesoamerica - style pottery and architectural elements are spread extensively - graves include significant amount of foreign goods - streets and buildings laid out in grid pattern that involved planning
Socialization
development through influence of parents and others of attitudes, values and behavior patterns in children that conform to cultural expectations (enculturation) -Not always directive and explicit - much of children's learning is "observing and pitching in"
160,000 years ago
earliest definite Homo Sapien
Integrated culture
elements or traits are mostly adjusted to or consistent with one another -may be influenced by psychological processes and by people transferring experiences from one are of life to another
Main goal of ethnography of speaking
find cultural and subcultural patterns of speech variation in different social contexts -Social status and who a person is talking to affects what a person says and how it's said -Social status may predict variation in speech from "standard speech" - use differentiation of certain words -Speech of men and women differ in most societies - terms of word choice, pronunciation, intonation and phrasing
Historical Linguistcs
focus on how languages change over time - reconstruct changes that have occurred in a language by comparing contemporary languages that are similar -Common ancestory, contact between communities and limited processes of linguistic change may explain why languages show similarities
Food Production
form of subsistence technology in which food getting is dependent on the cultivation and domestication of plants and animals
Homo antecessor
group of Homin fossils found in Spain that appear to be transitional between Neanderthals and modern humans - closely related to homo heidenbergenis - many scholars believe it is the same species
Positive Effects of globalization
increase in life expectancy and literacy, less warfare, growth of middle class -Movement of ideas, art, music and food among cultures tend to be reciprocal
Assimilation Theory
interbreeding between early modern humans - much genetic support
Field independent
isolate parts of situation from whole - hunters
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
language affects how individuals in a society perceive and conceive reality
Protolangugaes
language family - most languages today can be grouped into fewer than 30 families - hypothesized ancestral language from which two or more languages have been derived -Location of protolanguage may be suggested by the words for plans and animals in the derived languages - find locations of these specific objects and trace back to origins
Chiefdoms
many chiefs having authority over several villages
11,000 years ago
many people living in North and South America
Levalloisian method
method that allowed flake tools of a predetermined size to be produced from a shaped core - toolmakers first shaped the core and prepared a "striking platform" at one end - flakes could be knocked off - date as far back as 400,000 - found in Mousterian tool kits -Lived part of year in caves and relied more on fire than earlier species - signs of intentional burial
Revolution
most drastic and rapid way a culture can change - replacement of country's rulers - sources can be internal or external - not always successful - mostly likely in countries that are just becoming industrialized
Ethnogenesis
new cultures are created -when cases of violent events like depopulation, relocation, enslavement and genocide can lead to this
Individual variation
not everyone in society shares a particular cultural characteristic of that society -always use when referring to cultural
Morpheme
one or more morphs with the same meaning
Trade theory
organizational requirements of producing exportable items, redistributing imported items and defending trading parties would foster state formation
Mesolithic
period in Old World - 12000 BC - humans starting to settle down in semi-permanent camps - depend less on big game and more relatively stationary food resources
Creole langugaes
pidgin languages that develop - having grammar different from source languages
Universal nonverbal communication
recognize happy, sad, surprised, angry, disgusted or afraid face - many body and hand gestures are not universal
Paralanguage
refers to all the optional vocal features or silences apart from the language itself that communicate meaning
Syntax
reflects rules that predict how phrases and sentences are generally formed - not consciously aware of the syntax rules
Subculture
shared customs of a subgroup within a society
Broad Spectrum Collecting
shift in many areas of world to less dependence on big game hunting and greater dependence on this -included aquatic resources, variety of wild plants, deer and other game -Climate change may have been partly responsible
Microlith
small razorlike blade fragment that was probably attached in a series to a wooden or bone handle to form a cutting edge
Morph
smallest unit of language that has meaning
Code-switching
speakers who know two or more languages in common purposefully use words and phrases from both languages in their speech
Phones
speech sound in a language
Kinesics
study of communication by nonverbal means - including posture, mannerisms, body movement, facial expressions and signs and gestures
Morphology
study of sequences of sounds that have meaning
Pressure Flaking
tool-making technique where small flakes are struck off by pressing against the core with a bone antler or wooden tool
5000 years ago
Evidence of human language - likely exists 50,000 years ago used by humans and Neanderthals
Homo Heidelbergenis
transitional species between Homo Erectus and Homo Sapiens - had large cranial capacities, low foreheads and large browridges
Acculturation
type of change that occurs when different cultural groups come into intensive contact - occurs when one group more powerful than other
Modern Humans
Modern-looking humans differed from Neandertals and other early H. Sapiens in that they had higher, more bulging foreheads, thinner and lighter bones, smaller faces and jaws, chins, and only slight brow ridges -Debate 3 theories about origins of modern humans: single origin, multi regional, assimilation theory
Linguistic Divergence
-When groups speaking same language lose communication with one another through separation, they accumulate small changes in phonology, morphology and syntax that lead to dialects and maybe new languages -Isolation leads to divergence between speech communities and contact leads to resemblance -Colonization often promote extensive and rapid linguistic borrowing or total replacement -Words are borrowed more commonly than grammar
Relationships Between Language and Culture
-society's language may reflect its corresponding culture in lexical content or vocabulary -Both cultural and biological factors influence the number of basic color terms -Societies with six or more color terms are relatively far from equation and cultures are more technologically specialized -All languages have a core vocabulary of about the same size -Vocabulary of language reflects everyday distinctions that are important in society - true for grammar too
Multiregional Theory
Homo erectus population in Old World gradually evolved into anatomically modern looking humans - Neandertals are phases in gradual development of more modern looking features
Cities and States in Normal America
-North America - Cahokia - St. Louis - huge settlement with powerful chiefdom, religious and craft specialists and social stratification
Reasons why food production developed
-One possible cause of food production - population growth in regions of bountiful wild resources, pushing people to move to marginal areas where they tried to reproduce their former abundance -Another cause - global population growth - filling most of world's habitable regions and forcing people to use broader spectrum of wild resources and to domesticate plants and animals -Another cause - hotter and drier summers and colder winters - favor sedentary near seasonal stands of wild grain - force people to plant crops and raise animals to support themselves -Climate change and population pressure did not lead to domestication in Mesoamerica - humans in that area actively switched to domestication to obtain more of the most desired or useful plant species
Understanding what is cultural involves
-separating what is shared from what is individually variable and understanding whether common behavior and ideas are learned
Denisovans
known from a handful of skeletal fragments found at a single site in southern Siberia - contemporary with modern humans and Neanderthals -DNA recovered from those fragments revealed that they belonged to a unique species of hominin that had interbred with modern humans and contributed some of its DNA to us
Society
may or may not correspond to countries; many countries, particularly newer ones, contain many societies -group with a shared culture
Ethnographic analogy
method of comparative cultural study that extrapolates to the past from recent or current societies
Homo Sapiens
modern looking humans, undisputed examples appeared about 50,000 years ago; may have appeared earlier
Cognitive Anthropologists
more likely to say that culture refers not to the behaviors but to the rules and ideas behind them, and that culture therefore resides in people's heads
Ethnotheories
parents within culture have culturally patterned ideas about childrearing
Cultural Relativism
rejects notion that Western cultures are at the highest or most progressive stage of evolution - attempts to objectively describe and understand a society's customs and ideas in the context of that society's problems and opportunities -helps anthropologist be alert to perspectives in other cultures that might challenge their own cultural beliefs about what is true and that might lead them to make moral judgments
Rachis
seed-bearing part of plant - wild variety of grain, rachis shatters easily - in domesticated grains - tough rachis which does not shatter easily
Culture
set of learned behaviors and ideas (including beliefs, attitudes, values and ideals) that are characteristic of a particular society or other social group -to be cultural must be LEARNED AND SHARED -another view is that it is an entity, a force, that profoundly affects the individuals who live within that society
500,000 years ago
Homo Erectus evolved to Homo Sapiens
Secondary Institutions
(religion and art) are shaped by common personality characteristics - seem less related to adaptive requirements of society but reflect and express motives, conflicts and anxieties of society members
Middle Paleolithic
- period of history associated with Neandertals - in Europe and Near East dates from 300,000 to 400,000 years ago - period of Mousterian stone tool tradition
End of Ice Age
-14,000 years ago, climate began to become more temperate - many large animals went extinct and new warmer-adapted plants provided rich, new food sources -Evidence from the Maglemosian culture of northern Europe shows adaptations from big game hunting to reliance on smaller animal food sources - they used stone tools to chop down trees and use wood for shelters and canoes -Around the world, people began to use more plant foods and a broader range of resources overall - experimenting with domesticating plants and animals as they began to follow a more sedentary lifestyle
Archaeological Inferences About Civilization
-Archaeologists studied most ancient civilizations because those civilizations evolved before advent of writing -Burial finds reflecting inequality in death reflect inequality in life - states and perhaps wealth and power - also find differences in house size and furnishings so confirm society had different socioeconomic classes of people
Upper Paleolithic Cultures in Africa and Asia
-First Upper Paleolithic cultures found in Africa 60,000 years ago - spread to south and east Asia by 50,000 years ago and New Guinea and Australia by 40,000 years ago -North Africa Upper Paleolithic Peoples - hunted large animals on grasslands, lived in communities with easy access to water and other resources - moved regularly to follow animal herds - trade took place in local groups -South Asia - developed increasingly sedentary lifestyle along banks of freshwater streams
Culture Change and Adaptation
-Frequency of new learned behavior will increase over time and become customary in population if people exhibiting that behavior are most likely to survive and reproduce - culture change occur much more rapidly than genetic change -When circumstances change, individuals are more likely to try ideas or behaviors that are different from those of their patterns
Cultural Diversity in the Future
-Highly unlikely that all parts of world will end up same culturally -Many people affirming ethnic identities in process that often involves deliberately introducing cultural difference -Many more cultural groups nearer the equator than in northern and southern latitudes - possible associated with level of greater environment predictability
Cities and States in Mesoamerica
-In formative period, small, autonomous farming villages shifted from the hilly slopes to the floor of the Teotihuacan Valley - probably in association with use of irrigation - small elite centers emerged, each having raised platform -Earliest City State in Mesoamerica developed in Valley of Oaxaca - capital at Monte Alban - originally founded in late formative period as a neutral place where different political units in the valley could coordinate activities affecting the whole valley -Mayan state societies were densely populated and dependent on intensive agriculture - more urban and complex than previously thought
The Earliest Humans and Cultures in the New World
-Migrations of Humans to new world took place sometime after the emergence of H. Sapiens -Prevailing opinion - humans migrated to New World over land bridge between Siberia and Alaska (Bering Strait) or by boat along Alaska coast
Cross-Cultural Variation in Childrearing
-Parents in industrialized societies respond/hold babies less often than parents in preindustrialized societies where safety and survival is more of a concern -Parent-child play is rare - lack of play may be explained by the need of parents to create emotional distance in societies where threats to survival are high - some say parents not playing is better than not playing -Societies with less parent leisure time, rejection of child is more likely - leisure time decrease as culture becomes more complex - children become hostile and aggressive -Agricultural and herding societies stress responsibility and obedience -Hunter-gatherer societies stress self-reliance and assertiveness -Societies differ in attitudes toward aggression in children - societies involvement in war predicts parental encouragement of aggression
Consequence of the Rise of Food Production
-Plant and animal domestication led to increase in population -Greater reliance on agriculture led to an increase in sedentary in many areas -Populations that relied heavily on agriculture were less healthy compared to early foraging populations -In permanent villages - house and furnishing became elaborate, people began making textiles and paint pottery, long distance trade increased, political assemblies formed
Consequences of State Formation
-Populations grow and become concentrated in cities -More efficient agriculture allows many people to be removed from food production - as a result art, music, literature and organized religion can flourish -Militaristic expansion and conquest occurs - leaders wield power over own populations - underclass of power and often unhealthy people emerges -Epidemic disease affect population - resulting in dense populations and issues with food production
What Happened to Neanderthals
-The area in habited by Neandertals shrunk after about 30,000 years ago, Neandertals had disappeared -Neandertals probably became extinct because they could not compete with modern humans who were more efficient hunters and gatherers
Psychological Variation in Adulthood
-Western concept of self, different from Non-Western -Societies vary markedly in degree to which adults express anger and act aggressively toward others - aggression may be related to war and group's economy
Describing a Culture
-When domain includes many individual variations or when people studied are unaware of their pattern or behavior - anthropologists need to collect information from a large sample of individuals to establish what a cultural trait is -Something largely learned if it varies from society to society -Genetically influenced when it is found in all societies
Neolithic
-cultures reflect the presence of domestication -meaning "new stone age" - now meaning the presence of domesticated plants and animals
Individuals as Agents of Cultural Change
-individuals sometimes can bring about substantial cultural change but more often a whole cohort of individuals are faced with similar circumstances and change in similar directions -When enough individuals change, culture will change
Upper Paleolithic
-lifestyles were similar to lifestyles before - people mainly hunters, gatherers and fishers who probably lived in mobile land - made camps out in open and caves and rock shelters -New developments - new tool-making techniques, evidence of trade among groups, emergence of art, population growth, and new inventions such as bow and arrow, spear thrower (Atlatl), harpoon
8000 BC
Earliest evidence of domestication - in Near East -In New World early areas of cultivation and domestication include highlands in Mesoamerica (7000 BC), The central Andes around Peru (7000 BC) and Eastern Woodlands of North America (2000 BC) -Probably independent centers of domestication in other areas of Old World - China, Southeast Asia, New Guinea and Africa (All after 6000 BC)
Possible reasons for collapse of state
Environmental degradation, human behavior that may increase incidence of disease, overextension that may deplete resources, internal conflict that results from leaders' mismanagement -All ancient states collapsed eventually - no single explanation seems to fit all or even most of the situations - research into this question may have implications for prolonging the lives of our modern state systems
Cities and States in Asia
Harappan civilization in Indus Valley of India - controlled enormous territory with major cities built on similar patterns that included municipal water and sewage systems - Shang Dynasty in China - stratified and specialized state society with religious, economic and administrative unification and a distinctive art style
Cro-Magnons
Humans who lived in western Europe about 35,000 years ago, they were once thought to be the earliest specimens of modern-looking humans - now known that modern-looking humans appeared earlier outside of Europe; earlist so far lived in Africa
Cities and States in South America
Lima, Peru - had independent cities, plazas and large pyramids and those in Andes had complex agricultural systems with irrigation, a widespread system of religious symbols and beliefs and art
Single Origin Theory
Neanderthals replaced by modern humans - Homo sapiens had biological or cultural advantage that allowed them to do this
Diffusion
New cultural elements in one society may come from another society - selective process can be rejected or accepted - 3 basic patterns of diffusion - direct contact, intermediate contact, stimulus diffusion -People more likely to adopt behavior or innovation as it becomes more common - speed innovation adopted based on how new behaviors and ideas are transmitted in society
Cities and States in Africa
Nile Valley in Egypt capital at Memphis - supported population that lived in self-sufficient villages; later states built the pyramids - Axum State of Ethiopia - center of trade with multistory stone residences - Sub-Saharan Africa comprised a succession of City states
Theories about the Origin of the State
The irrigation theory, the circumscription theory, trade theories, etc. - No one theory explain formation of every state - different organizational requirements in all different areas all favored centralized government
Ethnocentrism
a view of ones cultural behaviors and attitudes as correct and those of other cultures as immoral or inferior - can bias objectively observing another culture -Can keep a person from understanding his or her own customs -Glorification of one's own culture or that of another also hinders effective anthropological study
Human Universals in Psychological realm
ability to create taxonomies, make binary contrasts, order phenomena, use logical operators, plan for future, have understanding of the world -Universal to have a concept of self, to recognize faces, to try to discern others intentions in facial clues, utterances and actions and to image what others are thinking -The potential ability of children to develop some kind of healthy attachment pattern to caretakers seems to be universal -Stages of development may be universal but likely tied to experience not age
Human Universals for emotion
ability to empathize, communicate, recognize, hide, or mimic emotions etc.
The irrigation theory
administrative needs of maintaining extensive irrigation systems may have been impetus for state formation
Mousterians
assemblages of flake tools from this period (Europe and Near East) - more small flake tools - named after tool assemblage found in a rock shelter in Le Moustier in the Dordogne region of France - flakes often altered by striking small flakes or chips from one or more edges
Middle Stone Age
assemblages of flake tools from this period but in Africa - like Middle Paleolithic but in Africa - more small flake tools than Acheulian assemblage
Ideal cultural traits
based on the way society used to be - ideas about how people in particular situations ought to feel and behave -variation in behavior typically confined within socially acceptable limits
Continental Diffusion
between Asia, Africa and Europe had been occurring since beginning of written history - large part because of scope and power of empires -does not mean trait is incorporated in exactly the same way among societies
Upper Paleolithic toolkit
characterized by the preponderance of blades; there were also burins, bone and antler tools and microliths
Burin
chisel-like stone tool used for carving and for making artifacts like bone and antler needles
Clovis Opinion
created unique projectile points that have single long flake, or "flute," knocked from their base to thin them and make them easy to haft - they lived by hunting big game animals, especially bison and mammoth
Maladaptive Customs
cultural traits that diminish the chances of survival and reproduction in a particular environment -may not be the same across different environments
Paleo-Indians -
diverse way of life - some hunting and following herds, some relying on fish and shellfish, others developing semi-sedentary riverine communities
14,000 years ago
earliest remains of people in the New World (North America)
Primary instutitions
family organization and subsistence techniques influence personality through customary childrearing practices which give rise to certain common adult personality characteristics
Neanderthals
genetically distant from modern humans - evolved in Europe 200,000 years ago - robust, large brains and faces, complex culture that used sophisticated stone tools and practice complex ritual behavior
State
hierarchical and centralized decision making that affects substantial population is key criteria - autonomous political unit with centralized decision making over many communities with power to govern by force -Most states have - cities with public building, full time craft and religious specialists, official art style, hierarchical social structure topped by an elite class from which the leaders are drawn -maintain power with a monopoly on the use of force - state uses force or the threat of force to tax its population and to draft people for work or war
Looser socieities
societies have more lenient norms and less strict punishments
Norms
standards or rules about what is acceptable behavior -Because members of a culture generally conform to that culture, they are not always aware of being constrained -Cultural constraints can be direct or indirect
Circumscription Theory
states emerge when competition and warfare in circumscribed areas lead to subordination of defeated groups, which are obliged to submit to the control of the most powerful group
Tight Socieites
strong behavior norms and considerable punishment for norm violations - more densely populated agricultural societies with higher stresses and risks
Personality Integration of Culture
the theory that personality of psychological processes may account for connections between certain aspects of culture
Epipaleolithic
time period during which food production first developed in Near East
Archaic
time period in New World during which food production first developed
Indirect Percussion
toolmaking technique common in Upper Paleolithic - after shaping a core into a pyramidal form, tool maker can put a punch of antler or wood into position and strike with hammer
