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Anthropology 101 Mid-Term Exam
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173
Anthropology
Undergraduate 1
03/08/2010

Additional Anthropology Flashcards

 


 

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Term
Adaptation
Definition
the process whereby a population becomes better suited to its habitat
Term
Anthropology
Definition
the holistic, global, comparative study of humans
Term
Applied anthropology
Definition
the application of method and theory in anthropology to the analysis and solution of practical problems
Term
Archeological anthropology
Definition
: The study of human behavior and cultural patterns and processes through the culture's material remains
Term
Biocultural
Definition
: the inclusion and combinations of both biological and cultural perspectives and approaches to comment on or solve a particular issue or problem
Term
Biological (physical) anthropology
Definition
: a branch of anthropology that studies the development of our species, in the context of the other primates
Term
Cultural Anthropology
Definition
: the study of human society and culture, the subfield that describes, analyzes, interprets, and explains social and cultural similarities and differences
Term
Cultural Resource Management
Definition
: to decide what needs saving, and to preserve significant information about the past when sites cannot be saved
Term
Cultures
Definition
: traditions and customs, transmitted through learning, that form and guide the beliefs and behavior of the people exposed to them
Term
Ethnography
Definition
: provides an account of a particular community, society, or culture
Term
Ethnology
Definition
: examines, interprets, analyzes, and compares the results of ethnography – the data gathered in different societies
Term
Food Production
Definition
: the cultivation of plants and domestication of animals
Term
General anthropology
Definition
: includes four main subdisciplines or subfields
Term
Holistic
Definition
: the study of the whole human condition: past, present, and future; biology, society, language, and culture
Term
Linguistic anthropology
Definition
: studies language in its social and cultural context, across space and over time
Term
Natural Selection
Definition
: first recognized by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace; the process by which the forms most fit to survive and reproduce In a given environment – such as the tropics – do so in greater numbers than others in the same population so. Over the years, the less fit organisms die out and the favored types survive by producing more offspring
Term
Phenotype
Definition
: an organism’s evident traits – anatomy and physiology
Term
Primates
Definition
: our closest relatives – apes and monkeys
Term
Racial Classification
Definition
: the attempt to assign humans to discrete categories [purportedly] based on common ancestry
Term
Science
Definition
: a systematic field of study or body of knowledge that aims, through experiment, observation, and deduction, to produce reliable explanations of phenomena, with references to the material and physical world
Term
Sociolinguistics
Definition
: investigates relationships between social and linguistic variation
Term
Tropics
Definition
: a belt extending about 23 degrees north and south of the equator, between the tropic cancer and the tropic of Capricorn – before the 16th century, most of the worlds very dark skinned populations lived here
Term
Acculturation
Definition
: a second mechanism of cultural change, is the exchange of cultural features that results when groups have continuous first hand contact – the cultures of either or both groups may be changed by this contact
Term
Core Values
Definition
: key, basic, central values – helps distinguish each culture from other cultures
Term
Cultural Relativism
Definition
: the viewpoint that behavior in one culture should not be judged by the standards of another culture
Term
Cultural Rights
Definition
: unlike human rights, cultural rights are vested not in the individuals but in groups, such as religious and ethnic minorities and indigenous societies
Term
Diffusion
Definition
: borrowing of traits between cultures
Term
Encultration
Definition
: the process by which a child learns his or her culture
Term
Ethnocentrism
Definition
: the tendency to view ones own culture as superior and to apply ones own cultural values in judging the behavior and beliefs of people raised in other cultures
Term
Generality
Definition
: biological, psychological, social, and cultural features that are common to several but not all human groups
Term
Globalization
Definition
: a series of processes, including diffusion, migration, and acculturation, working to promote change in a world in which nations and people are increasingly interlinked and mutually dependent
Term
Hominid
Definition
: the zoological family that includes fossil and living humans, as well as chimps and gorillas
Term
Hominins
Definition
: the group that leads to humans but not to chimps and gorillas and that encompasses all the human species that have ever existed
Term
Human rights
Definition
: a realm of justice and morality beyond and superior to the laws and customs of particular countries, cultures, and religions
Term
Independent invention
Definition
: process by which humans innovate, creatively finding solutions to problems – is a third mechanism of cultural change
Term
Intellectual property rights
Definition
: has arisen in an attempt to conserve each society’s cultural base – its core beliefs, knowledge, and practices
Term
International culture
Definition
: culture that extends beyond and across national boundaries
Term
National culture
Definition
: beliefs, learned behavior patterns, values, and institutions that are shared by citizens of the same nation
Term
National culture
Definition
: beliefs, learned behavior patterns, values, and institutions that are shared by citizens of the same nation
Term
Particularity
Definition
: biological, psychological, social, and cultural features unique to certain cultural traditions
Term
Subcultures
Definition
: different symbol-based patterns and traditions associated with particular groups in the same complex society
Term
Symbol
Definition
: signs that have no natural connection to the things they stand for or signify
Term
Universal
Definition
: biological, psychological, social, and cultural features found in every culture
Term
Complex societies
Definition
: large and populous societies with social stratification and central governments
Term
Cultural consultant
Definition
: informant; refers to the individuals the ethnographer gets to know in the field, the people who teach him or her about their culture, who provide the emic perspective
Term
Emic
Definition
: investigates how local people think; the ethnographer seeks the “native viewpoint”
Term
Etic
Definition
: shifts the focus from local observations, categories, explanations, and interpretations to those of the anthropologist
Term
Geneological method
Definition
: a well-established ethnographic technique – established by early ethnographers to identify all-important links of kinship determined by marriage and descent initiated it. Genealogy or kinship commonly plays a crucial role in the structure of non-industrial societies, determining both social relations and group relationship to the past. Marriage, for example, is frequently pivotal in determining military alliances between villages, clans or ethnic groups
Term
Informed consent
Definition
: agreement to take part in the research, after having been so informed
Term
Interview schedule
Definition
: the ethnographer talks face-to-face with people, asks the questions, and writes down the answers
Term
Life history
Definition
: recollection of a lifetime of experiences; provides a more intimate and personal cultural portrait than would be possible otherwise
Term
Longitudinal research
Definition
: the long-term study of a community, region, society, culture, or other unit, usually based on repeated visits
Term
Participant observation
Definition
: taking part in the events one is observing, describing, and analyzing
Term
Random sample
Definition
: a sample in which all members of a population have an equal statistical chance of being chosen for inclusion
Term
Sample
Definition
: a manageable study group taken from a much larger population
Term
Survey research
Definition
: involves sampling, impersonal data collection, and statistical analysis
Term
Variables
Definition
: attributes that vary among members of a sample or population
Term
Black English vernacular
Definition
: relatively uniform dialect spoken by the majority of black youth in most parts of the US today
Term
Call systems
Definition
: the natural communication systems of other primates (monkeys and apes)
Term
Cultural transmission
Definition
: how culture is passed on through learning from one generation to another. Also referred to as enculturation or socialization
Term
Daughter languages
Definition
: languages that descend from the same parent language and have been changing separately for hundreds or even thousands of years
Term
Descriptive linguistics
Definition
: the scientific study of a spoken language
Term
Diglossia
Definition
: applies to “high” and “low” variants of the same language
Term
Displacement
Definition
: the ability to talk about things that are not present
Term
Focal vocabulary
Definition
: a specialized set of terms and distinctions that are particularly important to a certain group and reflect experience or activities of this group
Term
Historical linguistics
Definition
: studies long-term change in language
Term
Kinesics
Definition
: the study of communication through body movements, stance, gestures and expressions
Term
Lexicon
Definition
: a languages dictionary containing all its morphemes and their meanings
Term
Morphology
Definition
: studies the forms in which sounds combine to form morphemes – words and their meaningful parts
Term
Phoneme
Definition
: a sound contrast that makes a difference, that differentiates meaning
Term
Phonemics
Definition
: studies only the significant sound contrasts (phonemes) of a given language
Term
Phonetics
Definition
: the study of speech sounds in general, what people actually say in various languages, like the differences in vowel pronunciation in Midwestern speech
Term
Phonology
Definition
: the study of speech sounds – considers which sounds are present and significant in a given language
Term
Productivity
Definition
: the degree to which native speakers use a particular grammatical process, especially in word formation
Term
Protolanguage
Definition
: the original language from which daughter languages diverge
Term
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Definition
: different languages produce different ways of thinking
Term
Semantics
Definition
: refers to a language’s meaning system
Term
Sociolinguistics
Definition
: investigates relationships between social and linguistic variation
Term
Style shifts
Definition
: the varying of speech in different contexts
Term
Subgroups
Definition
: languages within a taxonomy of related languages that are most closely related
Term
Syntax
Definition
: the arrangement and order of words in phrases and sentences
Term
Agriculture
Definition
: requires more labor than horticulture does because it uses land intensively and continuously
Term
Balanced reciprocity
Definition
: exchanges between people who are more distantly related than are members of the same band or household
Term
Band
Definition
: the basic social unit of hunter-gatherers
Term
Correlation
Definition
: association or co-variation between two or more variables
Term
Economy
Definition
: a system of production, distribution, and consumption of resources
Term
Generalized reciprocity
Definition
: someone gives to another person and expects nothing immediate in return
Term
Horticulture
Definition
: cultivation that makes intensive use of none of the factors if production: land, labor, capital, and machinery
Term
Market principle
Definition
: governs the distribution of the means of production – land, labor, resources, technology, and capital
Term
Means (or factors) of production
Definition
: includes land, labor, and technology
Term
Mode of production
Definition
: a way of organizing production
Term
Negative reciprocity
Definition
: exchange with people on the outside of ones social system; the attempt to get something for as little as possible
Term
Nomadism/pastoral
Definition
: the entire group moves with the animals throughout the year
Term
Pastoralists
Definition
: people whose activities focus on such domesticated animals as cattle, sheep, goats, camels, yak, and reindeer
Term
Peasants
Definition
: small-scale agriculturalists who live in nonindustrial states and have rent fund obligations
Term
Potlatch
Definition
: festive event within a regional exchange system among tribes of the North Pacific Coast of North America
Term
Reciprocity
Definition
: the exchange between social equals, who are normally related by kinship, marriage, or other close personal tie
Term
Reciprocity continuum
Definition
: the range of reciprocity from generalized to negative
Term
Redistribution
Definition
: when goods, services, or their equivalent move from the local level to a center
Term
Transhumance
Definition
: part of the group moves with the herd, but most people stay home in the village
Term
Achieved status
Definition
: statuses that aren’t automatic; they come through choices, actions, efforts, talents, or accomplishments, and may be positive or negative
Term
Age set
Definition
: a type of sodality; each set included all the men – from that tribes component bands – born during a certain time span
Term
Ascribed status
Definition
: people have little or no choice about occupying this kind of status; age is this kind of status
Term
Big man
Definition
: an elaborate version of the village head; had supporters in several villages; regulator of regional political organization
Term
Caste system
Definition
: closed, hereditary systems of stratification that are often dictated by religion
Term
Chiefdom
Definition
: a form of sociopolitical organization intermediate between the tribe and the state – although they are kin-based, they feature differential access to resources and a permanent political structure
Term
Differential access
Definition
: some men and women have privileged access to power, prestige, and wealth
Term
Fiscal
Definition
: financial system needed in states to support rulers, nobles, officials, judges, military personnel, and thousands of other specialists
Term
Office
Definition
: a permanent position, which must be refilled when it is vacated by death or retirement
Term
Open-class system
Definition
: facilitates mobility; individual achievement and personal merit determines social status, hierarchical social status achieved on the basis of effort; ascribed statuses less important
Term
Pantribal sodality
Definition
: non-kin associations that extend across the whole tribe, spanning several villages
Term
Power
Definition
: the ability to exercise ones will over others – to do what one wants – is the basis of political status
Term
Prestige
Definition
: the basis of social status – refers to esteem, respect, or approval for acts, deeds, or qualities considered exemplary
Term
Slavery
Definition
: people who are conquered or stolen from their homelands become someone’s property
Term
Sociopolitical typology
Definition
: refers to four types, or levels, of a political organization: “band,” “tribe,” “chiefdom,” and “state”
Term
State
Definition
: a form of sociopolitical organization based on a formal government structure and socioeconomic stratification
Term
Status
Definition
: the various positions that people occupy in society; spouse, parent, trading partner, teacher, student, etc.
Term
Stratification
Definition
: the creation of separate social strata; its emergence signified the transition from chiefdom to state
Term
Subordinate
Definition
: lower or underprivileged
Term
Superordinate
Definition
: the higher or elite
Term
Tribe
Definition
: a form of sociopolitical organization; they had economies based on non-intensive food production (horticulture and pastoralism)
Term
Vertical mobility
Definition
: upward or downward change in a person’s social status
Term
Village head
Definition
: the only leadership position in village-based tribal societies; cannot issue orders; can only attempt to persuade the public to do what he wants
Term
Wealth
Definition
: economic status; encompasses all a person’s material assets, including income, land, and other types of property
Term
Bridewealth
Definition
: a customary gift before, at, or after the marriage from the husband and his kin to the wife and her kin; compensates the bride’s group for the loss of her companionship and labor; exists in more cultures than dowry;
Term
Clan
Definition
: use stipulated descent; clan members merely say they descend from the apical ancestor, without trying to trace the actual genealogical links
Term
Descent group
Definition
: a permanent social unit whose members claim common ancestry
Term
Dowry
Definition
: a marital exchange in which the wife’s group provides substantial gifts to her husband’s family; women are perceived as burdens, and when husbands and their families take a wife, they expect to be compensated for the added responsibility
Term
Endogamy
Definition
: dictates marriage or mating within a group to which one belongs
Term
Exogamy
Definition
: the practice of seeking a mate outside of ones own group
Term
Extended family household
Definition
: when the family household includes three or more generations
Term
Family
Definition
: a group of people who are considered to be related in some way
Term
Family of orientation
Definition
: the family in which one is born and grows up
Term
Family of procreation
Definition
: family formed when one marries and has children
Term
Incest
Definition
: sexual relations with a relative; all cultures ban this
Term
Levirate
Definition
: when a widow marries the brother of her dead husband
Term
Lineage
Definition
: uses demonstrated descent; members recite the names of their forebears from the apical ancestor through the present
Term
Matrilineal descent
Definition
: type of descent where you are automatically part of the mothers group at birth and stay a member for life
Term
Matrilocality
Definition
: married couples live in the wife’s community
Term
Neolocality
Definition
: the residence practice in which married people start their own household apart from their parents' or families' households
Term
Patrillineal descent
Definition
: type of descent where people automatically have membership in their fathers group; the children of the groups men join the group, but the children of the groups women are excluded
Term
Patrilocality
Definition
: when a couple marries, it moves to the husband’s community
Term
Polyandry
Definition
: when a woman has more than one husband
Term
Polygyny
Definition
: when a man has more than one wife
Term
Progeny price
Definition
: rather then the woman herself, her children are permanently transferred to the husband’s group
Term
Sororate
Definition
: if the wife dies, her sister, or another woman in the group will take her place to continue the alliance between families; exists in both matrilineal and patrilineal societies
Term
Unilineal descent
Definition
: this descent rule uses one line only, either the male or the female line
Term
Examples of applied anthropology
Definition
Cultural resource management, forensic anthropology, study of linguistic diversity in classrooms
Term
Four subfields of general anthropology
Definition
cultural, linguistic, archaeological, biological
Term
Two dimensions of anthropology
Definition
general & applied
Term
Edward Tylor
Definition
(anthropologist) proposed that cultures, systems of human behavior and thought, obey natural laws and therefore can be studied scientifically - culture is acquired by all humans as members of society
Term
Franz Boas
Definition
(anthropologist) Cultures are not isolated; cultural/linguistic relativism, cultural particularism, head size change
Term
Charles Montesqieu
Definition
(anthropologist) towards end of middle ages, wrote the spirit of laws, claimed differences among people were cause by environmental factors, not god
Term
Charles Marx
Definition
(anthropologist) mode of production, role of social conflict
Term
Lewis Henry Morgan
Definition
(anthropologist) decided people across the world are relatively similar
Term
Bronislaw Malinowski
Definition
(anthropologist) participant observation, functionalism, culture & biology are similar
Term
Three values of culture
Definition
idealism, behavioralism, holism
Term
Claude Levi-Strauss
Definition
(anthropologist) structuralism, binary oppositions
Term
Thomas Jefferson
Definition
(anthropologist) first archaeologist - dug in mounds to look for signs of early europeans
Term
Christian Thomeson
Definition
(anthropologist) three age system: stone/bronze/iron
Term
Daniel Wilson
Definition
(anthropologist) first archeological class
Term
Lewis Binford
Definition
(anthropologist) processuralism
Term

What does anthropology reveal about assumptions such as "people are pretty much the same all over the world"?

[image] A)[image] that these assumptions only hold true for societies living in industrialized countries
[image] B)[image] that these assumptions are falsely based on genetic research

C)[image] that years of comparative, cross-cultural research prove that these assumptions are wrong
[image] D)[image] that years of comparative, cross-cultural research prove that these assumptions are true
[image] E)[image] that these assumptions are true only for biology, but not for culture
Definition
C)[image]that years of comparative, cross-cultural research prove that these assumptions are wrong
Term

What is anthropology?

A)[image] the exploration of human cultural diversity
[image] B)[image] the exploration of human biological diversity
[image] C)[image] the humanistic study of human diversity

D)[image] the exploration of human diversity in time and space
[image] E)[image] the comparative study of nations

 

Definition
D)[image]the exploration of human diversity in time and space
Term
What are cultures?


A)[image] rules that dictate what is sacred and what is profane
  [image] B)[image] traditions that distinguish urban and nonurban communities
 
C)[image] traditions and customs, transmitted through learning, that form and guide the beliefs and behavior of the people that are exposed to them
  [image] D)[image] what people have when they do not have education
  [image] E)[image] processes by which organisms cope with environmental forces and stresses
Definition
C) traditions and customs, transmitted through learning, that form and guide the beliefs and behavior of the people that are exposed to them
Term
How have scientists historically approached the study of human biological diversity? Which is the current, more scientifically valid approach?
 
A)[image] racial classification and the explanatory approach, the current, more scientifically valid approach
  [image] B)[image] racial classification, based either on genetics or phenotype (both are equally scientifically valid).
  [image] C)[image] the holistic classificatory approach, based on both genetics and phenotype, and the racial classificatory approach (finally possible given sophisticated technology)
  [image] D)[image] the explanatory and the prescriptive approaches (the latter is the more scientifically valid)
  [image] E)[image] the "great races" and the "lower races" approaches (both are equally scientifically valid)
Definition
A) racial classification and the explanatory approach, the current, more scientifically valid approach
Term
One of the many problems with using phenotype to classify human races is that phenotypical similarities and differences
[image] A)[image] always have a genetic basis.
[image] B)[image] only matter if they are visible.
[image] C)[image] have nothing to do with natural selection.

D)[image] don't necessarily have a genetic basis.
[image] E)[image] can only be accurately studied using genetics.
Definition


D)[image] don't necessarily have a genetic basis.
Term
Which of the following is the most likely reason for the dark skin color shared by tropical Africans and southern Indians?
[image] A)[image] dietary adaptation
[image] B)[image] malarial resistance
[image] C)[image] reducing the frequency of rickets
[image] D)[image] common ancestry

E)[image] prevention of hypervitaminosis D
Definition
e) prevention of hypervitaminosis D
Term
Recent research suggests that another key factor explaining the geographic distribution of skin color involves the effects of UV on folate,

A)[image] an essential nutrient that the human body manufactures from folic acid and that plays a key role in preventing neural tube defects.
[image] B)[image] an essential nutrient that promotes healthy spermatogenesis and that requires UV for its proper production and absorption in the body.
[image] C)[image] an essential nutrient that helps prevent rickets.
[image] D)[image] an essential nutrient that, if produced in excess, causes neural tube defects in human embryos.
[image] E)[image] an essential nutrient that promotes the production of melanin.
Definition
A)[image] an essential nutrient that the human body manufactures from folic acid and that plays a key role in preventing neural tube defects.
Term
Biological anthropology focuses exclusively on the evolution of hominids.
[image] A)[image] True

B)[image] False
Definition
False
Term

Cultural learning depends on

- biology

- globalization

- adaptation

- diffusion

- symbols

Definition
symbols
Term
reflexive ethnography
Definition
the writer/ethnographer puts his or her own feelings in the text of the ethnography
Term
Practice theory
Definition
focuses on how individuals manage to influence, create, and transform, the world they live in
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