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Anthro100 Human Cultures

Anthropology
Anthro100 Human Cultures

Terms

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Mary Douglas
Pollution "Matter out of place"
Polygyny
Marriage between a man and teo or more women
Pollution
"Matter out of place"
Etic
Scholarly knowledge and understanding of a culture's patterns and logic that may be outside the awareness of members of the culture being studied
Franz Boas
Cultural Relativism
Age Mates
Males who are initiated, and go through life's stages, together
Genitor
A person's biological father
Creolisation
Cultural borrowing that produces novel cultural practices or products
Monogamy
Marriage in which individuals have only one spouse
Achieved Status
The status one acquires during their lifetime
Kula
Competitive, ritualised exchange of valuables in the Trobriand Islands and other Massim societies
Holism
The anthropological position that to understand any given social or cultural phenomenon, we must understand its relationship to other sociocultural phenomenon in that society
Acephalous
A society without formal government or political offices
Genotype
One's genetic make-up
Globalisation
The process by which the people of the world affect each other
Ethnocentrism
The opinion that one's own way of life is natural and correct and the only reasonable or appropriate way of being fully human
Ethnology
Analysis and comparison based on cross-cultural comparison
Symbol
Something that stands for something else
Patrilocal / Virilocal Residence
Postmarital residence with the husband's kin
Indigenous Peoples
societies or cultures, incorporated into settler societies, that were independent prior to colonisation
Racism
The insistence that races exist, determine our human possibilities and characters and that some are superior to others
Phenotype
The observable manifestation of one's genes
Anthropology
The study of humanity in all times, places and dimentions
Taboo
Forbidden social behaviour
Agriculture
A mode of subsistence characterised by permanent cultivation, the use of ploughs, draft animals and sometimes technologies such as irrigation or soil control
Marriage
A socially recognised relationship that provides a continuing claim to sexual access and legitimises the offspring of that relationship
Polyandry
Marriage between a woman and two or more men
Ascribed Status
One's status by birth and inheritance
Peasants
Food-producing societies that are incorporated politically, economically and culturally into states
Genetrix
A person's biological mother
Marshall Sahlins
Marshall Sahlins
Marvin Harris
Marvin Harris
World Religion
A religion that has become meaningful to culturally diverse peoples
Society
A group of people who are mutually dependent for their survival, well-being or basic living arrangements
Eurocentrism
A tendency to project European conceptual understandings onto the cultural practices of other societies. May or may not entail ethnocentrism
James Scott
James Scott
Emile Durkheim
The Dichotomy of Sacred and Profane
Art
Forms of creative expression that are based on culturally defined aesthetic principles
Money
A standard of value for purposes of exchange
Potlatch
Competitive feasting and gifting among Northwest Coast Native North Americans
Polygamy
Form of marriage permitting a person to have multiple spouses simultaneously
Immanuel Wallerstein
Immanuel Wallerstein
World System
A long-term system of global interrelationships consisting of core, semi-periphery and periphery
Subsistence
The ways in which a society utilises the environment in meeting their needs
Affines
People related by marriage. In-laws
Race (2)
A cultural concept premised on perceptions that humanity is divided into discrete biological sub-species which are reflected in phenotypical features, such as colour or hair texture
Redistribution
Centralised collection of wealth followed by reallocation
Balanced Reciprocity
Exchanges of approximate equivalence, with a clear obligation to return them within a specified time limit
Richard Lee
Wrote about the Ju'/hoansi people
Fraternal Interest Groups
Groups of related males who defend each other's interests
Patrilineal Descent
Descent systems in which membership and inheritance pass through the male line
Ideology
Ideas that justify the status quo, including prevailing inequalities
Enculturation / Socialisation
Process of learning to be culturally and socially appropriate human beings
Kinship
The anthropological study of how people define, understand and relate to their relatives
Key Symbol
A symbol that is central to a particular culture
Transnational Society
A society that is spread over multiple countries and continents
Karl Marx
Religion is the opium of the masses
Sex
Biological markings of male and female
Plasticity
The inborn capacity of young humans to learn and grow into any socio-cultural world
Feud
Ongoing intra-group conflict based on the principle of violent reciprocity
Ethnicity
Aspects of relationships between groups which consider themselves, and are regarded by others, as being culturally distinctive (Eriksen 2002: 4)
Culture
Symbolically-based human behaviour and understanding that is learned and typical of a particular society
Affluence
The condition of having more than enough of whatever is required to satisfy culturally defined consumption needs
Resistance
The power / ability to refuse or avoid being made to conform
Marcel Mauss
Gift Exchange - the religious, legal, economic, mythological and other aspects of giving, receiving and repaying in different cultures
Cultural Universals
Elements of culture that exist in all known human groups or societies
Race (1)
A geographically isolated subdivision of a species that can reproduce with individuals from other subdivisions of the same species, but does not because of its geographical isolation
Bronislaw Malinowski
Participant observation
Clifford Geertz
"Man is an animal suspended in webs of siignificance he himself has spun..."
Matrilineal Descent
Descent systems in which membership and inheritance pass through the female line
Foraging
Subsistence characterised by reliance on wild plants and animals for meeting their wants and needs
Cultural / Methodological Relativism
Understanding a culture in its own terms sympathetically enough that it can be seen as a coherent and meaningful design for living
Moral / Ethical Relativism
The position holding that there are no grounds for ethical or moral evaluation of any practice or action
Dowry
Marriage custom that recognises and admits few differences in wealth, status or power
Exogamy
Social expectation / rule that members of a group marry outside the group
Eugenics
The argument that the social evolutionist principle of "survival of the fittest" should inform human population management
Endogamy
Social expectation / rule that members of a group marry within the group
Feral Child
One raised by animals or growing up in the wild
Gender
Cultural attributions of masculinity, femininity and blending of the two
Religion
Beliefs, practices and institutions focussed on the sacred
Colonialism
The active possession of a foreign territory and maintenance of direct political control over that territory
Race (3)
A ideology purporting to classify, differentiate and rank human beings on the basis of natural differences
Pastoralism
A mode of subsistence based on herding domesticated animals
Sherry Ortner
Key Symbols
Ethnography
Written analysis of the culture and society of a group of people
Mater
A person's socially recognised mother
Generalised Reciprocity
Giving and taking without consideration of time or value of eventual return
Consanguines
People related by birth. May or may not be "blood" relatives
Participant Observation
The fieldwork technique that involves gathering data by observing and participating in peoples lives
Subsistence Economy
An economy in which production is directed primarily at survival
Emic
Understanding of a culture's practices held by its members
Pater
A person's socially recognised father

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