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ANP 131 exam 4
Introduction to Anthropology
106
Anthropology
Undergraduate 1
06/19/2009

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Term
cultural adaptation
Definition
A complex of ideas, activities, and technologies that enable people to survive and even thrive.
Term
ecosystem
Definition
A system, or a functioning whole, composed of both the natural environment and all the organisms living within it.
Term
progress
Definition
The notion that humans are moving forward to better, more advanced stage in their cultural development towatd perfection.
Term
convergent evolution
Definition
In cultural evolution, the development of similar cultural adaptations to similar environmental conditions by different peoples with different ancestral cultures.
Term
parallel evolution
Definition
In cultural evolution, the development of similar cultural adaptations to similar environmental conditions by peoples who ancestral cultures were already somewhat alike.
Term
culture area
Definition
A geographic region in  which a number of societies follow similar patterns of life.
Term
culture core
Definition
Cultural features that are fundamental in the society's way of making its living-including food-producing techniques, knowledge of available resources, and the work arrangements involved in applying those techniques to the local environment.
Term
food foraging
Definition
Hunting fishing, and gathering wild plant foods.
Term
carrying capacity
Definition
The number of people that the available resources can support at a given level of food-getting techniques.
Term
density of social relations
Definition
The number and intensity of interactions among the members of a camp.
Term
Neolithic
Definition
The New Stone Age; prehistoric period beginning about 10,000 years ago in which people posessed stone-based technologies and depended on domesticated plants and/or animals.
Term
Neolithic transition
Definition
Sometimes referred to as Neolithic revolution. The profound culture change beginning about 10,000 years ago and associated with the early domestication of plants and animals, and setlement in permanent villages.
Term
horticulture
Definition
Cultivation of crops carried out with simple hand tools such as digging sticks or hoes.
Term
slash-and-burn
Definition
Also known as swidden farming. An extensive form of horticulture in which the natural vegetation is cut, the slash is subsequently burned, and crops are then planted among the ashes.
Term
agriculture
Definition
The cultivation of food and plants in soil prepared and maintained for crop production. involves using technologies other than hand tools, such as irrigation, fertilizers, and the wooden or metal plow pulled by harnessed draft animals.
Term
pastoralism
Definition
Breeding and managing large herds of domesticated grazing animals, such as goats, sheep, cattle, horses, llamas, or camels.
Term
peasant
Definition
A rural cultivator whos surplusses are transferred to a dominant group of rulers that uses the surpluses both to underwrite its own standard of living and to distribute the remainder to groups in society that do not farm but must be fed for their specific goods and services in turn.
Term
economic system
Definition
An organized arrangement for producing, distributing, and consuming goods.
Term
technology
Definition
Tools and other material equipment, together with the knowledge of how to make and use them.
Term
reciprocity
Definition
The exchange of goods and services, of approximately equal value, between two parties.
Term
generalized reciprocity
Definition
A mode of exchange in which the value of what is given is not calculated, nor is the time of repayment specified.
Term
balanced reciprocity
Definition
a mode of exchange in which the giving and the receiving are specific as to the value of the goods and the time of their delivery.
Term
negative reciprocity
Definition
A form of exchange in which the aim is to get something for as little as possible. Neither fair nor balanced, it may invoolve hard bargaining, manipulation, and outright cheating.
Term
silent trade
Definition
A form of barter in which no verbal communication takes place.
Term
Kula ring
Definition
A form of balanced reciprocity that reinforces trade relations among the seafaring Trobriad people, who inhabit a large rinf of islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean off the eastern coast of Papua new Guinea, and other Melanesians.
Term
redistribution
Definition
A form of exchange in which goods flow into a central place, where they are sorted, counted, and reallocated.
Term
conspicuous consumption
Definition
A showy display of wealth for social prestige.
Term
potlach
Definition
On the northwest coast of North America, a ceremonial event in which a village chief publicly gives away stockpiled food and other goods that signify wealth.
Term
prestige economy
Definition
Creation of a surplus for the express purpose of gaining prestige through a public display of wealth that is given away as gifts.
Term
leveling mechanism
Definition
A cultural obligation compelling prosperous members of a community to give away goods, host public feasts, provide free service, or otherwise demonstrate generosity so that no one permanently accumulates significantly more wealth than anyone else.
Term
market exchange
Definition
The buying and selling of goods and services, with prices set by rules of supply and demand.
Term
money
Definition
Something used to make payments for other goods and services as well as to measure their value.
Term
informal economy
Definition
A network of producing and circulating marketable commodities, labor, and services that for various reasons escape government control.
Term
power
Definition
The ability of individuals or groups to impose their will upon others and make them do things even against their own wants or wishes.
Term
political organization
Definition
The way power is distributed and embedded in society; the means through which a society creates and maintains social order.
Term
band
Definition
A relatively small and loosely organized kin-ordered group that inhabits a specific territory and that may split periodically into smaller extended family groups that are politically independent.
Term
tribe
Definition
In anthropology, refers to a range of kin-ordered groups tha tare politically integrated by some unifying factor and whose members share a common ancestry, identity, culture, language, and territory. 
Term
chiefdom
Definition
A regional polity in which two or more local groups are organized under a single chief, who is at the head of a ranked hierarchy of people.
Term
state
Definition
In anthropology, a centralized polity involving large numbers of people withing a defined territory who are divided into social classes and organized and directed by a formal government that has the capacity and authority to make laws, and use force to defend the social order.
Term
nation
Definition
A people who share a collective identity based on a common culture, language, territorial base, and history.
Term
legitamacy
Definition
The right of political leaders to govern-to hold, use, and allocate power-based on the values of a particular society.
Term
cultural control
Definition
Control through beliefs and values deeply internalized in the minds of individuals.
Term
social control
Definition
External control through open coercion.
Term
sanction
Definition
An externalized social control designed to encourage conformity to social norms.
Term
law
Definition
Formal rules of conduct that, when violated, effectuate negative sanctions.
Term
negotiation
Definition
The use of direct argument and compromise by the parties to a dispute to arrive voluntarily at a mutually satisfactory agreement.
Term
mediation
Definition
Settlement of a dispute through negotiation assisted by an unbiased third party.
Term
adjudication
Definition
Mediation with an unbiased third party making the ultimate decision.
Term
worldview
Definition
The collective body of ideas that members of a culture generally share concerning the ultimate shape and substance of their reality.
Term
religion
Definition
An organized system of ideas about the spiritual sphere or the supernatural, along with associated ceremonial practices by which people try to interpret and/or influence aspects of the universe otherwise beyond their control.
Term
spirituality
Definition
Concern with the sacred, as distinguished from material matters. Often individual rather than collective and does not require a distinctive format or traditional organization.
Term
polytheism
Definition
Belief in several gods and/or goddesses (as contrasted with monotheism-belief in one god or goddess).
Term
pantheon
Definition
The several gods and goddesses of a people.
Term
animism
Definition
A belief that nature is animated (enlivened or energized) by distinct personalized spirit beings seperable from bodies.
Term
animatism
Definition
A belief that nature is enlivened or energized by an impersonal spiritual power or supernatural potency.
Term
priest or priestess
Definition
A full-time religious specialist formally recognized for his or her role in guiding the religious practices of others and for contacting and influencing supernatural powers.
Term
shaman
Definition
A person who enters an altered state of consciousness-at will-to contact and utilize an ordinarily hidden reality in order to acquire knowledge, power, and to help others.
Term
rite of passage
Definition
A ritual that marks an important stage in an individuals life cycle, such as birth, marriage, and death.
Term
separation
Definition
In a rite of passage, the ritual removal of the individual from society.
Term
transition
Definition
In a rite of passage, isolation of the individual following separation and prior to incorporation into society.
Term
incorporation
Definition
In a rite of passage, reincorporation of the individual into society in his or her new status.
Term
rite of intensification
Definition
A ritual that takes place during a crisis in the life of the group and serves to bind individuals together.
Term
imitative magic
Definition
Magic based on the principle that like produces like; sometimes called sympathetic magic.
Term
contagious magic
Definition
Magic based on the principle that things or persons once in contact can influence each other after the contact is broken.
Term
witchcraft
Definition
An explanation of events based on the belief that certain individuals possess an innate psychic power capable of causing harm, including sickness and death.
Term
divination
Definition
A magical procedure or spritual ritual designed to find out about what is not knowable by ordinary means, such as foretelling the future by interpreting omens.
Term
revitalization movement
Definition
A movement for radical cultural reform in response to widespread social disruption and collective feelings of great stress and dipair.
Term
cargo cult
Definition
A spiritual movement (especially noted on Melanesia) in reaction to disruptive contact with Western capitalism, promising resurrection of deceased relatives, destruction or enslavement of white foreigners, and the magical arrival of utopian riches.
Term
art
Definition
The creative use of the human imagination to aesthetically interpret, express, and engage life, modifying experienced reality in the process.
Term
iconic images
Definition
Culturally specific people, animals, and monsters seen in the deepest stage of trance.
Term
folklore
Definition
A term coined by 19th century scholars studying the unwritten stories and other artistic traditions of rural peoples to distinguish between "folk art" and the "fine art" of the literate elite.
Term
myth
Definition
A sacred narrative that explains the fundamentals of human existence-where we and everything in our world came from, why we are here, and where we are going.
Term
legend
Definition
A story about a memorable event or figure handed down by tradition and told as true but without historical evidence.
Term
epic
Definition
A long dramatic narrative recounting the celebrated deeds of a historic or legendary hero-often sung or recited in poetic language.
Term
tale
Definition
A creative narrative that is recognized as fiction for entertainment but may also draw a moral or teach a practical lesson.
Term
motif
Definition
A story situation in a tale.
Term
ethnomusicology
Definition
The study of a society's music in terms of its cultural setting.
Term
tonality
Definition
In music, scale systems and their modifications.
Term
language
Definition
A system of communication using sounds or gestures that are put together in meaningful ways according to a set of rules.
Term
signal
Definition
An instinctive sound or gestire that has a natural or self-evident meaning.
Term
linguistics
Definition
The modern scientific study of all aspects of language.
Term
phonetics
Definition
The systematic identification and description of distinctive speech sounds in a language.
Term
phenology
Definition
The study of language sounds.
Term
phoneme
Definition
The smallest unit of sound that makes a difference in meaning in a language.
Term
morphology
Definition
The study of the patterns or rules of word formation in a language (including suchthings as rules concerning verb tense, pluralization, and compound words).
Term
morpheme
Definition
The smallest unit of sound that carries a meaning in language. It is distinct from a phenome, which can alter meaning but has no meaning itself.
Term
syntax
Definition
The patterns or rules by which morphemes are arranged into phrases and sentences.
Term
grammar
Definition
The entire formal structure of a language, including morphology and syntax.
Term
language family
Definition
A group of languages descended from a single ancestral language.
Term
linguistic divergence
Definition
The development of different languages from a single ancestral language.
Term
glottochronology
Definition
In linguistics, a method for identifying the approximate time that languages branched off from a common ancestor. It is based on alalyzing core vocabularies.
Term
core vocabularies
Definition
The most basic and long-lasting words in any language-pronouns, lower numerals, and names for body parts and natural objects.
Term
linguistic nationalism
Definition
The attempt by thnic minorities and even countries to proclaim independence by purging their language of foreign terms.
Term
sociolinguistics
Definition
The study of the relationship between language and society through examining how social categories (such as age, gender, ethnicity, religion, occupation, and class) influence the use and significance of distinctive styles of speech.
Term
gendered speech
Definition
Distinct male and female speech patterns, which vary across social and cultural settings.
Term
dialects
Definition
Varying forms of a language that reflects particular regions, occupations, or social classes and that are similar enough to be mutually intelligible.
Term
code switching
Definition
Changing from one level of language to another as the situation demands, whether from one language to another or from one dialect of a language to another.
Term
ethnolinguistics
Definition
A branch of linguistics that studies the relationships between language and culture and how they mutually influence and inform each other.
Term
linguistic relativity
Definition
The idea that distinctions encoded in one language are unique to that language.
Term
linguistic determinism
Definition
The idea that language to some extent shapes the way in which we view and think about the world around us; sometimes called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis after its originators Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Lee Whorf.
Term
proxemics
Definition
The cross-cultural study of humankind's perception and use of space.
Term
paralanguage
Definition
Voice effects that accompany language and convey meaning. These include vocalization such as giggling, groaning, or sighing, as well as voice qualities such as pitch and tempo.
Term
tonal language
Definition
A language in which the sound pitch of a spoken word is an essential part of its pronunciation and meaning.
Term
displacement
Definition
Referring to things and events removed in time and space.
Term
writing system
Definition
A set of visible or tactile signs used to represent units of language in a systematic way.
Term
alphabet
Definition
A series of symbols representing the sounds of a language arranged in a traditional order.
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