Anthropology Midterm (ch 1 - 8)

Neoevolutionism

"New Evolution" is the rebirth of evolutionary approaches to studying and explaining culture

Main Subfields of anthropology

1) Biological/Physical Anthropology 2) Cultural Anthropology 3) Archaeology 4)Linguistic Anthropology 5) Applied Anthropology

Levels of religion

Animism Polytheism (many) Monotheism (1)

Applied Anthropology

Any kind of anthropological research used to solve practical problems

E.B Tylor

Believed the most primitive of cultures practiced a form of animism

Bronislaw Malinowski

thought the main purpose of cultures was to serve human biological, psychological and social needs.

Ethnography in terms of research

to collect and record descriptive data about the cultures of specific people

Ethnology

to explain the past and present diversity found in cultural systems in the world

Enculturation

transmission (by social learning) of cultural knowledge to the next generation

Do archaeologists study plants & animal remains related to humans as well?

true

Does culture affect the choices people make about how to act?

true

Social Darwinism

view that the degree of success in achieving social rewards is determined by the inborn characteristics of individuals and groups

worldviews

ways people interpret reality and events, including how they see themselves relating to the world around them

Who believed that culture is separate and unique

Franz Boas

Who is the father of Anthropology?

Franz Boas

Biological/Physical Anthropology

The Study of human biological evolution & human biocultural variation

Julian Steward

agreed with White's arguments

interpretive Anthropology

analyze cultural elements by explaining their meanings to people and understanding them in their local context.

Morpheme

any sequence of phonemes that carries meaning

Leslie White

argued that technology that people used to acquire nature's resources have improved over the centuries; believed technology often almost determines everything important in a culture

ruth Benedict

argues each culture develops distinctive set of feelings and motivations that orients the thought of behaviors of that culture

Animism

belief in spiritual beings

Tone Languages

changing the tone of voice pitch alters the meaning of the word

Materialism

claim that the main influences cultural differences and similarities are technology, environment, and resources

James Frazer

created the book The Golden Bough which is an origin point for the study of anthropology; collected myths from British empire cultures

Cultural Identity

cultural rendition a group of people recognize as their own

subculture

cultural variations that exist within a single nation

Indigenous people

culturally distinct people who have occupied a region longer than the people who have colonized or immigrated to the region

configurationalism

each culture develops its own thematic patterns where beliefs, values, and behaviors are oriented

How was the world before globalization?

early human groups were hunter-gatherers who lived off-land

Cultural Universals

elements of culture that exists in all known human groups or societies

The Columbian Exchange

exchange of peoples, diseases, domesticated animals and plants, and cultural knowledge between peoples of the old and new world

globalization

flow of cultural knowledge between the different peoples of the world

Postmodernism

focus on knowledge of a particular time and place is constructed

Social reality

how humans culturally construct others by placing them into categories and attributing characteristics to them (race).

Natural reality

how people divide up plants, animals, landscape features, seasons

Evolutionary psychology (Sociobiology)

humans and animals are similar evolutionary forces

Biological Determinism

idea that biologically (genetically) inherited differences between populations are important influences on cultural differences between them. Also a belief about what makes human groups differ in their beliefs and action

fieldwork techniques

interviewing recall ethnography participant observation

Why is cultural anthropology important?

it helps us understand how similar we all are and how interconnected we all are.

cultural knowledge

leads to behavior that is meaningful to others and adaptive to the natural and social environment

What are artifacts?

material objects from past cultures

bound morphemes

morpheme attached to a free morpheme to alter its meaning (bi- , dis-, -er)

Free Morpheme

morpheme that can be used alone

Examples of cultural universals

music, beliefs about superpowers, games/sports

Symbols

objects, behaviors, qualities, and other phenomena whose culturally defined meanings have no necessary relationship to their inherent physical qualities (The cross to Christians, Nation flags, gun ownership to freedom)

Franz Boaz

one of the founders of Anthropology in North America and worked with many different Native American groups. He helped educate the public about cultural and biological variability

Socialization

process of social learning of a culture by children

Humanistic

rejects attempts to explain differences/similarities and cultural changes in general in favor of achieving an empathetic understanding of particular cultures

Norms

shared ideas or expectations about how certain people should act in certain situations

Values

shared ideas or standards about the worthwhileness of goals and lifestyles

Language

shared knowledge of sounds, words, meanings and grammatical rules used to send and receive messages

Phoneme

small units of sound that speakers unconsciously recognize as distinctive from other sounds

society

socially distinct group of people who share a common language and culture

Culture

socially learned knowledge and patterns of behavior shared by some group of people

Bronislaw Malinowski

studies the inhabitants of Trobriand Islands in the South Pacific his work represents one of the first comprehensive ethnographies

Proxemics

studies the meanings conveyed by space and distance

Ethnography

study of a living culture

Morphology

study of meaningful sound sequences and rules by which they are formed

Archaeology

study of past human societies and our ancestors, focusing on material remains

Cultural/ Social Anthropology

study of present day societies, most often but not exclusively in non- Western settings

Patterns of behavior

the behavior most people perform when they are in certain culturally defined situations

Sapir- Whorf Hypothesis

the idea that language shapes the perceptions and worldviews of its speakers

the biocultural approach examines what?

the interrelationship between what humans have inherited

Linguistic Anthropology

the study of language; particularly: How languages structured The evolution of languages The cultural contexts of languages

Phases of globalization

Phase one: 1500s (European conquest of america) Phase two: 1800s (Industrial revolution in Europe) Phase three: Global Economy

enculturation

Information, skills, attitudes, conceptions, beliefs, and values that people socially learn

Anthropologists Say culture is:

Learned Shares Responsible for differences in ways of thinking Essential in completing the psychological and social development of individuals

Further Subfields of Biological/ Physical Anthropology

Medical anthropology genetic anthropology forensic anthropology primatology

stages if development

Savagery Barbarism Civilization Western Civilization

Margaret Mead

Studies family dynamics

What do traditional cultural anthropologists study?

Study living cultures & present their observations in an ethnography

Anthropology

Study of humankind- through all places & time

Phonology

Study of the sound systems of language

Where did anthropology derive from?

European Colonial Expansion

5 properties of language

Grammar Dialect Sound Systems Phonemes Tone Languages

examples of applied anthropology

Health and Medicine Education Community development Human Rights