Anthropology
the social science that studies the origins and social relationships of human beings
culture
the attitudes and behavior that are characteristic of a particular social group or organization
subculture
a social group within a national culture that has distinctive patterns of behavior and beliefs
cultural anthropology
gathers holistic info about cultures in order to construct theories about cultural patterns; uses ethnography and ethnology
archaeology
study of past through material remains
physical/biological anthropology
includes evolution of homo sapiens, physical variations of humans in the world, and primatology
linguistic anthropology
study of language and the way ppl use them;entails discriptive (recording/analyzing graamar) and comparative (relationships between languages)
applied anthropology
the application of anthropoligical data, perspectives, theory, and methods to identify, assess, and solve contemporary social problems
Emile Durkheim
Father of sociology, functionalism, metaphysician, mechanical and organic solidarity, developed idea that division of labor as organizing theme of society
artifacts
Human made object (tool, jewelry, toys, coins) that teach us about the customs and belifs of people from the past
reflexive ethnography
first person, may question whether fieldwrok is final authoritive
realism ehtnography
3rd person, everything described from an authoritive perspective, the anthropologist knows all.
ethnology
Examines, interprets, analyzes, and compares the results of ethnography
holism
refers to the study of the whole of the human condition: past, present, and future; biology, society, language, and culture
ethics
the moral principles and values people have
culture shock
a condition of disorientation affecting someone who is suddenly exposed to an unfamiliar culture or way of life or set of attitudes
enculturation
the adoption of the behavior patterns of the surrounding culture
unilineal evolution
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.
historical particularism
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
cultural materialism
Marvin Harris; determines human thought and behavior; provides explanations for comparisons in groups; environment & ppl = 1; relies on ETIC
Infrastructure
production and reproduction
structure
domestic and political economy
superstructure
behavioral/mental
functionalism
a psychology based on the assumption that all mental process are useful to an organism in adapting to the environment
etic
An outsider's understanding of another culture
emic
culture described from someone inside the culture
ethnocentrism
judging others in terms of one's own cultural standards
acculturation
the adoption of the behavior patterns of the surrounding culture
pidgin
an artificial language used for trade between speakers of different languages
creole
a mother tongue that originates from contact between two languages
dialect
the usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people
phonology
the study of the sound system of a given language and the analysis and classification of its phonemes
lexicon
a dictionary of a language
syntax
set of principle guiding how words are arranged in phrases
culture change
diffusion, acculturation, independent invention, globalization
cultural relativism
IPR-Indeginous Intellectual Property rights: conservation of a society's core values, practices, and beliefs
Qualitive data
subjective; ethnographies: life history
Quantitive data
surveys and objective research
fieldwork
participant observation, interviews, unobtrusive data, qualitive, quantitive, hawthorn/heisenberg effect, rashomon efect
participant observation
carefully observing and recording data, events in context and holistic; can "go native
unstructured interviews
open ended; more time required
language
primary communication; based on symbols; only humans have the capacity to discuss past, future, and experiences
diglossia
regular shifting between dialects
protolanguages
original language from which daughter languages originate
displacement
share/benefit from others experiences
morphology
study of how sounds come together to form meaning
grammar
entire structure of language; rules to follow
phonemes
individual sounds; english has 46
morphemes
one or more phenomes that convey meaning; Free: CAT; Bound: CATS
kinesics
study of body communication
sociolinguists
Study: gender speech patterns, defferences between men and women, women use of words reflect lesser power in U.S.
Tannen's socioliguitic study
women use language to build rapport; men recite info to establish place for themselves in a hierarchy
historical linguists
Study relationships among languages to better understand the histories and migrations of those who speak them.
sociolinguistics
relation between social and linguistic variations
Sapir-Whorf hypotheses
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)
Universal Grammar
Chomsky's theory of the innateness of linguistic knowledge
Clifford Geertz
Culural analysis is intrinsically incomplete."; thick description- all behavior has more than one meaning; emic based
Margaret Mead
gender is cultured; tested her hypothesis in Arapesh, Mundugamor, and Tchambuli. Found that all cultures recognize at least 2 genders
Edward Tylor
Animism > Polytheism > Monotheism
Lewis Henry Morgan
movement of savagery barbarism civilization; interested in historical evolution of cultures; worked with kinship & family organization of Iroquois Indians
Franz Boas
created idea of cultural relativity and fieldwork methodology: record everything possible
Bronislaw Malinowski
Father of ethnograph; salvage ethnograph; emphasized EMIC perspective; all aspects of culture intertwined
Noam Chomsky
theorist who believed that humans have an inborn or "native" propensity to develop language
Indo-European Language family
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.
foraging
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
horticulture
growing domestic crops in small gardens using only hand tools and human labor
pastoralism
A type of agricultural activity based on nomadic animal husbandry or the raising of livestock to provide food, clothing, and shelter.
transhumance
a seasonal periodic movement of pastoralists and their livestock between highland and lowland pastures
intensive agriculture/farming
farming small amount of land for high yield with fertilizer, machines, and irrigation
industrialism
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.
production
the creation of value or wealth by producing goods and services