Anth 100 (chapters 1-3)

Archeology

The study of past cultures through their material remains

Biological Anthropology

The study of humankind from a biological perspective

Linguistic Anthropology

Primary means by which people communicate with one another. Concerned with understanding language and its relation to culture

Cultural Anthropology

The comparative study of human societies and cultures
How humans have adaptive to their environment and given significance to their environment and lives

Holistic

The study of human biology, history, and the learned and shared patterns of human behavior

Osteology

Skeletal analysis

Demography

The statistical study of human population

Epidemiology

The study of patterns of disease

Primatology

The study of primates?

Paleoanthropologist

The study of human evolution and the biological processes involved in human adaption

Human Variation

Physiological differences among humans

Primates

Members of the order that includes monkeys, apes, and humans

Historical Linguistics

Work to discover the ways in which languages have changed and the ways in which languages are related to each other.

Prehistoric

Societies for which we have no usable written remains

Artifact

Any object made or modified by human beings. Generally used to refer to objects made by past cultures

Cultural Resource Management (CRM)

Archaeologists concerned with the protection and management of archaeological, archival, and architectural resources

Society

A group of people who depend on one another for survival or well-being as well as the relationships among such people, including their status and roles.

Culture

The learned behaviors and symbols that allow people to live in groups. The primary means by which humans adapt to their environments. The way of life characteristic of a particular human society.

Participant Observation

The fieldwork technique that involves gathering cultural data by observing people's behavior and participating in their lives

Ethnography

The description of a society or culture. Ethnography refers to both the process of qualitative, fieldwork- based research and written results of that research.

Emic

A study that attempts to capture what ideas and practices means to member s of a culture.

Etic

A study that describes and analyzes culture according to principles and theories drawn largely from western scientific traditions.

Ethnology

The attempt to find general principles or laws that govern cultural phenomena

Applied Anthropology

The application of anthropology to the solution of human problems

Indigenous peoples

Members of societies that have occupied a region for a long time and are recognized by other groups as its original inhabitants.

Ethnocentrism

The notion that one's own culture is superior of another.

Racism

Beliefs, actions, and patterns of social organization that exclude individuals and groups from the equal exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Cultural Relativism

Notion that a people's values and customs must be understood in terms of the culture of which they are a part.

Biopsychological equality

The notion that all human groups have the same biological and mental capabilities.

Problems with early colonized Anthropologist research

.Communities have little control over if they accept an anthropologist
.Anthropologists did not have to be responsive to the political & economic needs of the people among whom they worked.
.Anthropologists did not have to be sensitive to their concerns a

Nacirema Case

-Satire on America
-By Horace Miner
-How people might view America from an outside view.
-Obsession with Appearance and the body

Discoveries into Anthropology:

-Imperialism
-Natural law
-Progressivism and primitivism
-New Version of evolution in biology
-Theory of natural selection
-Human evolution is considered
-Examine fieldwork through collections of data
-Sir Edward Burnett Tylor & Louis Henry Morgan
-Lewis

Fieldwork

The firsthand, systematic exploration of a society. it involves living with a group of people and participating in observing their behavior

Institutional Review Board(IRB)

A committee organized by a university or other research institution that approves, monitors and reviews all research that involves human subjects.

Culture shock

Feelings of alienation and helplessness that result from rapid immersion in a new and different culture

Emic Perspective

Examining a society using concepts and distinctions that are meaningful to members of that culture

Etic Perspective

Examining societies using concepts, categories, and rules derived from science; and outsider's perspective that produces analyses that members of the society being studied may not find meaningful

Informant (respondent, interlocutor, consultant)

A person from whom an anthropologist gathers data.

Human Relations Area Files (HRAF)

An ethnographic database that includes descriptions of more than 300 cultures and is used for cross-cultural research

Problems with anthropology being dominated by males

-In many societies, men and women live quite segregated lives.
-Anthropologists tended to assume that men's activities were political and therefore important whereas women's activities were domestic and therefore of less importance.
-In most societies, me

Postmodernism

A theoretical perspective focusing on issues of power and voice. Postmodernists suggest that anthropological accounts are partial truths reflecting the background, training, and social position of their authors.

Native Anthropologist

An anthropologist who does fieldwork in his or her own culture.

Informed consent

The requirement that participants in anthropological studies should understand the ways in which their participation and the release of the research data are likely to affect them.

Collaborative anthropology

Ethnography that gives priority to informants on the topic, methodology and written results of research.

Engaged Anthropology

Anthropology that includes political action as a major goal of fieldwork.

What was Lee's Original Interest?

-What could the Ju tell us about a way of life based on forging

Habitus

The often taken for-granted ways of acting that are acquired through both individual and social experience.

Enculturation

The process of learning to be a member of a particular group

Inuit

Hunting people of the Arctic

Culture and Personality Theory

An Anthropological perspective that focuses on culture as the principle force in shaping the typical personality of a society as well as on the role of personality in the maintenance of cultural institutions

Ethnoscience

Interested in capturing the understanding of members of a culture.

Cognitive Anthropology

A theoretical approach that defines culture in terms of the rules and meanings underlying human behavior, rather than behavior itself.

Structural Anthropology

A theoretical perspective that hold that all cultures reflect similar deep, underlying patterns and that anthropologists should attempt to decipher these patterns

Interpretive Anthropology

A theoretical approach that emphasizes culture as a system of meaning and proposes that the aim of cultural anthropology is to interpret the meanings that cultural acts have for their participants

Functionalist

The anthropological theory that specific cultural institutions function to support the structure of a society or serve the needs of individuals in society.

Ecological Functionalism

A theoretical perspective that holds that there ways in which cultural institutions work can best be understood by examining their effects on the environment.

Marvin Harris's (1966)

explanation on Hindu taboo on eating focuses on the effects of the cattle in the indian environment rather than the Hindu belief system.

Neo-Marxist

A theoretical perspective concerned with applying the insights of marxist thought to anthropology; Neo- Marxists modify marxist analysis to make it appropriate to the investigation of small-scale, non-western societies.

Norms

An ideal cultural pattern that influences behavior in a society.

Value

A culturally defined idea of what is true, right and beautiful.

Subculture

A system of perceptions, values, beliefs, and customs that are significantly different from those of a larger, dominant culture within the same society

Adaptation

Change in the biological structure of lifeways of an individual or population by which it becomes better fitted to survive & reproduce by which it becomes better fitted to survive & reproduce in its environment

Plasticity

The ability to change behavior in response to a range of environmental demands.

Innovation

A new variation on an existing cultural pattern that is subsequently accepted by other members of the society

Diffusion

The spread of cultural elements from one culture to another through cultural contact

Transculturation

The transformation of adopted cultural traits, resulting in new cultural forms

Organic Analogy

Used by �mile Durkheim specifically to bring out the distinction between mechanical and organic solidarity, where in the latter 'the unity of the (social) organism is as great as the individuation of the parts is more marked'.

Historical Particularism

Argues that each society is a collective representation of its unique historical past.

Cultural Ecology

the study of human adaptations to social and physical environments.