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| the study of human nature, human society, and the human past |
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| social groupings that allegedly reflect biological differences |
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| the systematic oppression of one or more socially defined "races" by another socially defined "race" that is justified in terms of supposed inherent biological superiority of the rulers and the supposed inherent biological inferiority of those they rule |
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| the specialty of anthropology that shows how variation in the beliefs and behaviors of members of different human groups is shaped by sets of learned behaviors and ideas that human beins acquire as members of society- that is, by culture |
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| an anthropologist's written or filmed description of a particular culture |
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| the comparative study of two or more cultures |
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| specialists who use information gathered from the other anthropological specialties to solve practical cross-cultural problems |
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| sets of learned behaviors and ideas that humans acquire as members of society. Humans use culture to adapt to and transform the world in which they live. |
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| something that stands for something else |
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| perspective on the human condition that assumes that mind and body, individuals and society, and individuals and the environment interpenetrate and even define one another |
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| the opinion that one's own way of life is natural or correct and, indeed, the only true way of being fully human |
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| understanding another culture in its own terms sympathetically enough so that the culture appears to be a coherent and meaningful design for living |
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| an extended period of close involvement with the people in whose language or way of life anthropologists are interested, during which anthropologists ordinarily collect most of their data |
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| the method anthropologists use to gather information by living as closely as possible to the people whose culture they are studying while participating in their lives as much as possible |
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| the view that there is a reality "out there" that can be known through the senses and that there is a single, appropriate set of scientific methods for investigating that reality |
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| people in a particular culture who work with anthropologists and provide them with insights about their way of life. Also called respondents, teachers, or friends. |
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| the feeling, akin to panic, that develops in people living in an unfamiliar society when they cannot understand what is happening around them |
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| an economic system dominated by the supply-demand-price mechanism called the market; an entire way of life that grew in response to and in service of that market |
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| cultural domination with enforced social change |
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| the persistence of profound social and economic entanglements linking former colonial territories to their formal colonial rulers despite political sovereignty |
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| the enduring aspects of the social forms in a society, including its political and kinship systems |
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| the characteristic form of social organization found among foragers; a small group of people usually with 50 or fewer members. Labor is divided according to age and sex, and social relations are highly egalitarian. |
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| a form of social organization generally larger than a band; members usually farm or herd for a living. Social relations in a tribe are relatively egalitarian, although there may be a cheif who speaks for the group or organizes group activities. |
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| a form of social organization in which the leader (a chief) and the chief's close relatives are set apart from the rest of the society and allowed privileged access to wealth, power, and prestige |
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| a stratified society that possesses a territory that is defended from outside enemies with an army and from internal disorder with police. A state, which has a separate set of governmental institutions designed to enforce laws and collect taxes and tribute, is run by an elite that possesses a monopoly on the use of force. |
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| the system of arbitrary vocal symbols we use to encode our experience of the world |
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| the scientific study of language |
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| the study of the sounds of language |
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| in linguistics, the study of the minimal units of meaning in language |
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| the process by which human beings as material organisms, living together with other similar organisms, cope with the behavioral rules established by their respective societies |
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| the process by which human beings living with one another must learn to come to terms with the ways of thinking and feeling that are considered appropriate in their respective cultures |
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| Transformation-Presentation |
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| the process in which experience is transformed as it is represented symbolically in a different medium |
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| stories whose truth seem self-evident because they do such a good job of integrating our personal experiences with a wider set of assumptions about the way society, or the world in general, must operate |
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| "correct doctrine;" the prohibition of deviation from approved mythic texts |
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| "correct practice;" the prohibition of deviation from approved forms of ritual behavior |
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| a repetitive social practice composed of a sequence of symbolic activities in the form of dance, song, speech, gestures, or the manipulation of objects, adhering to a culturally defined ritual schema, and closely connected to a specific set ofr ideas that are often encoded in myth |
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| a ritual that serves to mark the movement and transformation of an individual from one social position to another |
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| encompassing pictures of reality created by the members of societies |
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| ideas and practices that postulate reality beyond that which is immediately available to the senses |
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| a part-time religious practicioner who is believed to have the power to travel to or contact supernatural forces directly on behalf of individuals or groups |
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| a religious practiioner skilled in the practice of religious rituals, which he or she carries out for the benefit of the group |
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| the performance of evil by human beings believed to possess an innate, nonhuman power to do evil, whether or not it is intentional or self-aware |
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| invisible forces to which people address questions and whose responses they believe to be truthful |
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| the synthesis of old relgious practices (or an old way of life) with new religious practices (or a new way of life) introduced from outside, often by force |
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| tranformative capacity; the ability to transform a given situation |
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| the study of social power in human society |
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| a worldview that justifies the social arrangements under which people live |
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| persuading subordinates to accept the ideology of the dominant group by mutual accommodations that nevertheless preserve the rulers' privileged position |
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| the power to refuse being forced against one's will to conform to someone else's wishes |
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| a pervasive sense of rootlessness and normlessness in a society |
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| a pervasive sense of rootlessness and normlessness in a society |
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| the part of the discipline of anthropology that debates issues of human nature that relate directly to the decisions of daily life and making a living |
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| stable and enduring cultural practices that organize social life |
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| the patterns of production, distribution, and consumption that members of a society employ to ensure the satisfaction of the basic material survival needs of humans |
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| a form of cultivation based on the technique of clearing uncultivated land, burning the brush, and planing crops in the ash-enriched soil, which requires moving farm plots every few years as the soil becomes exhausted |
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| a form of cultivation that employs plows, draft animals, irrigation, fertilizer, and such to bring much land under cultivation at one time, to use it year after year, and to produce significant crop surpluses |
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| the exchange of goods and services of equal value. Anthropologists distinguish three forms of reciprocity: generalized, in which neither the time nor the value of the return are specified; balanced, in which a return of equal value is expected within a specified time limit; and negative, in which parties to the exchange hope to get something for nothing |
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| a mode of exchange that requires some form of centralized social organization to receive economic contributions from all members of the group and to redistribute them in such a way that every group member is provided for |
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| the exchange of goods (trade) calculated in terms of a multipurpose medium of exchange and standard of value (money) and carried on by means of a supply-demand-price mechanism (the market) |
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| a specific, historically occuring set of social relations through which labor is deployed to wrest energy from nature by means of tools, skills, organization, and knowledge |
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| the tools, skills, organization, and knowledge, used to extract energy from nature |
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| the social relations linking the people who use a given means of production within a particular mode of production |
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| the socially recognized ties that connect people in a variety of different ways |
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| term borrowed from political scientist, Benedict Anderson to refer to groups whose members' knowledge of one another does not come from regular face-to-face interactions but is based on shared experiences with national institutions, such as schools and government bureaucracies |
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| social relationships that are prototypically derived from the universal human experiences of mating, birth, and nurturance |
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| an institution that prototypically involves a man and a woman, transforms the status of the participants, carries implications about sexual access, gives offspring a position in society, and establishes connections between the kin of the husband and the kin of the wife |
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| the principle that a descent group is formed by people who believe they are related to each other by connections made through their mothers and fathers equally (sometimes called cognatic descent) |
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| the principle that a descent group is formed by people who believe they are related to each other by links made through a father or mother only |
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| a social group formed by people connected by father-child links |
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| a social group formed by people connected by mother-child links |
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| a descent group formed by members who believe they have a common (sometimes mythical) ancestor, even if they cannot specify the genealogical links |
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| social positions people are assigned at birth |
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| social positions people may attain later in life, often as the result of their own (or other people's) effort |
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| marriage within a defined social group |
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| marriage outside a defined social group |
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| a postmarital residence pattern in which a married couple lives with (or near) the husband's father |
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| a postmarital residence pattern in which a married couple lives with (or near)the wife's mother |
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| a postmarital residence pattern in which a married couple live with (or near) the husband's mother's brother (from avuncular, "of uncles") |
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| a marriage pattern in which a person may be married to only one spouse at a time |
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| a marriage pattern in which a person may be married to more than one spouse at a time |
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| a marriage pattern in which a man may be married to more than one wife at a time |
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| a marriage pattern in which a woman may be married to more than one husband at a time |
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| the transfer of certain symbolically important goods from the family of the groom to the family of the bride on the occasion of their marriage. It represents compensation to the wife's lineage for the loss of her labor and her childbearing capacities |
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| the transfer of wealth, usually from parents to their daughter, at the time of her marriage |
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| a family made up of two generations: the parents and their unmarried children |
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| a family pattern made up of three generations living together: parents, married children, and grandchildren |
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| a cultural system characterized by small, kinship-based societies, often with only 500 people, in which households organize production and distribution |
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| a cultural system characterized by centrally organized societies with thouands or millions of members and energy-intensive production directed by political rulers |
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| a cultural system organized by impersonal market exchanges, commercial enterprises, contracts, money, and potentially encompassing the entire world |
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