Cultural Anthropology Exam 1

the social science that studies the origins and social relationships of human beings

the attitudes and behavior that are characteristic of a particular social group or organization

a social group within a national culture that has distinctive patterns of behavior and beliefs

gathers holistic info about cultures in order to construct theories about cultural patterns; uses ethnography and ethnology

study of past through material remains

includes evolution of homo sapiens, physical variations of humans in the world, and primatology

study of language and the way ppl use them;entails discriptive (recording/analyzing graamar) and comparative (relationships between languages)

the application of anthropoligical data, perspectives, theory, and methods to identify, assess, and solve contemporary social problems

Father of sociology, functionalism, metaphysician, mechanical and organic solidarity, developed idea that division of labor as organizing theme of society

Human made object (tool, jewelry, toys, coins) that teach us about the customs and belifs of people from the past

first person, may question whether fieldwrok is final authoritive

3rd person, everything described from an authoritive perspective, the anthropologist knows all.

Examines, interprets, analyzes, and compares the results of ethnography

refers to the study of the whole of the human condition: past, present, and future; biology, society, language, and culture

the moral principles and values people have

a condition of disorientation affecting someone who is suddenly exposed to an unfamiliar culture or way of life or set of attitudes

the adoption of the behavior patterns of the surrounding culture

The first theoretical anthropological perspective to take root. Proposed three stages of humanity (savagery, barbarism, civilization), viewed cultural attributes as the effects of innate, biological differences.

It argued that each society is a collective representation of its unique historical past, Instead, historical particularism showed that societies could reach the same level of cultural development through different means. Franz Boas

Marvin Harris; determines human thought and behavior; provides explanations for comparisons in groups; environment & ppl = 1; relies on ETIC

production and reproduction

domestic and political economy

behavioral/mental

a psychology based on the assumption that all mental process are useful to an organism in adapting to the environment

An outsider's understanding of another culture

culture described from someone inside the culture

judging others in terms of one's own cultural standards

the adoption of the behavior patterns of the surrounding culture

an artificial language used for trade between speakers of different languages

a mother tongue that originates from contact between two languages

the usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people

the study of the sound system of a given language and the analysis and classification of its phonemes

a dictionary of a language

set of principle guiding how words are arranged in phrases

diffusion, acculturation, independent invention, globalization

IPR-Indeginous Intellectual Property rights: conservation of a society's core values, practices, and beliefs

subjective; ethnographies: life history

surveys and objective research

participant observation, interviews, unobtrusive data, qualitive, quantitive, hawthorn/heisenberg effect, rashomon efect

carefully observing and recording data, events in context and holistic; can "go native"

open ended; more time required

primary communication; based on symbols; only humans have the capacity to discuss past, future, and experiences

regular shifting between dialects

original language from which daughter languages originate

share/benefit from others experiences

study of how sounds come together to form meaning

entire structure of language; rules to follow

individual sounds; english has 46

one or more phenomes that convey meaning; Free: CAT; Bound: CATS

study of body communication

Study: gender speech patterns, defferences between men and women, women use of words reflect lesser power in U.S.

women use language to build rapport; men recite info to establish place for themselves in a hierarchy

Study relationships among languages to better understand the histories and migrations of those who speak them.

relation between social and linguistic variations

grammatical categories lead speakers to think in different ways; language shapes but does not restrict thought; cultural changes can produce changes in thought and language (contrary to S-W)

Chomsky's theory of the innateness of linguistic knowledge

"Culural analysis is intrinsically incomplete."; thick description- all behavior has more than one meaning; emic based

gender is cultured; tested her hypothesis in Arapesh, Mundugamor, and Tchambuli. Found that all cultures recognize at least 2 genders

Animism > Polytheism > Monotheism

movement of savagery barbarism civilization; interested in historical evolution of cultures; worked with kinship & family organization of Iroquois Indians

created idea of cultural relativity and fieldwork methodology: record everything possible

Father of ethnograph; salvage ethnograph; emphasized EMIC perspective; all aspects of culture intertwined

theorist who believed that humans have an inborn or "native" propensity to develop language

Family of languages with the greatest number of speakers, spoken in most of Europe and areas of European settlement and in much of southwestern and southern Asia.

all humans until 10,000 BP; most became food producers; remainers depend partially on food production/producers; mornern foragers live in nation-states-depend on some gov't assistent and influenced by world system; mainly in environments unfavorable to food production; about 1,046,000 left

growing domestic crops in small gardens using only hand tools and human labor

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

a seasonal periodic movement of pastoralists and their livestock between highland and lowland pastures

farming small amount of land for high yield with fertilizer, machines, and irrigation

based on the development of large-scale industries and marked by the production of large quantities of inexpensive manufactured goods and the concentration of employment in urban factories.

the creation of value or wealth by producing goods and services