Cultural Anthropology, Exam 2 Flashcards

Front 1

habitus

Back 1

"being in the world," the relationship of culture and the individual (Pierre Bourdieu); (1) any form of bodily disposition or comportment that encodes a certain cultural understanding; (2) unconscious internalization of objective social structures which appear spontaneous and natural, but which are in fact socially conditioned

Hint 1

Extremely naturalized way of “being in the world” or existence; decisions and actions are “orchestrated” without the conscious knowledge of the players or often the conductors

Front 2

common male activities cross-culturally

Back 2

Hunting, warfare, building houses, clearing land, “physical” labor

Front 3

common female activities cross-culturally

Back 3

Child care, gathering food, carrying water, “domestic” activities

Front 4

sexual division of labor

Back 4

Theory based on biological differences in males and females:
(1) Men’s physical strength
(2) Female childbirth and infant care

Front 5

gender stratification

Back 5

Status of men/women varies from one society to another.

Hint 5

Indicators of women’s status:
- The role played by women in society.
- The value society places on their contributions,
- Their legal rights,
- Whether and to what extent they are expected to be deferential to men,
- Economic independence, and
- The degree to which they decide on major events in their lives.

Front 6

gender ideology

Back 6

A system of thoughts and values that legitimizes gender roles, statuses and customary behavior.

Hint 6

Some possible consequences of inflexible gender ideologies:
• Female infanticide
• Honor killings
• Female genital mutilation
• Gender-based violence (such as domestic violence)

Front 7

Primordialist Model

Back 7

people maintain their ethnic affiliations because it is fundamental to their identity; Focuses on the more intrinsic, taken for granted aspects of culture, like kinship and religion

Hint 7

Ethnicity is a phenomenon of relatedness, that kinship is the
basis of one’s felt bond to a group; ex: the Old Order Amish

Front 8

Circumstantialist Model

Back 8

Suggests that ethnic groups mark their boundaries not on the cultural content distinctiveness, but in relation to, or in opposition to other groups in their surroundings. Its political.

Hint 8

How/why groups mobilize for political action

Front 9

Anthropologist Fredrick Barth

Back 9

(circumstantialist model) doesn’t consider ethnic identity to be universal, but rather a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions.

Front 10

group conciousness

Back 10

(circumstantialist model) the belief by the members that there is something different that unites them and sets them apart (e.g. a past of genocide, enslavement, exploitation)

Front 11

Contemporary thought

Back 11

- Anthropologists draw from both models to explain or interpret ethnicity
- How societal conditions affect how people define themselves ethnically

Front 12

ethnicity

Back 12

- Ethnicity is not biologically determined
- Ethnicity is altered, modified, and asserted in differing
historical, social, political, and cultural contexts.
- ethnic identity depends upon ascription and self- ascription; only as individuals embrace it, are constrained by it, act on it, and experience it will ethnicity make an organizational difference

Front 13

race

Back 13

- Race is culturally defined, not biologically defined
- Racial categories are ascribed by the dominant
group and vary by culture
- Reasons for the ascriptions are usually supported by prejudices and are created in response to political competition and competition over economic resources

Hint 13

- Racial ascriptions can have social, economic, and emotional consequences
- It is more sensitive and less ethnocentric to use terms like “people groups” to describe human variation

Front 14

religion

Back 14

The organized system of ideas and practices about the supernatural, along with associated beliefs, ceremonial practices and all phenomena that are seen as having a sacred or supra-empirical* quality.

Front 15

anthropology of religion

Back 15

For anthropologists, religion is a multifaceted phenomenon with overlapping spheres, rather than a single entity that can be identified and studied in isolation.

Hint 15

Religions may differ from one another on their emphasis of these domains of society and culture:
- Ritual(practical)dimension
- Philosophical(theology/theodicy)
- Mythic(narrative,stories)
-Experiential(emotional,psychological)
- Ethical(legal,doctrinal)
- Organizational(social,hierarchical)
- Material(artistic,symbolic)
- Political and economic

Front 16

Religious Example: Aja Rite of Passage

Back 16

In Vodoun religious practice in Benin, West Africa, Sakpata is the deity of the earth, and of smallpox and skin disease.
Community members are chosen to become initiates (called kponkpon) into this spirit possession troupe; membership gives immunity to skin disease, and the new members use their status and power as members of the troupe to provide protection from illness for community members.
The rite takes up to three years for initiates. Upon completion of the rite, initiates become Sakpatashi, or, spouses of the deity.

Front 17

cultural conceptions of the “self”

Back 17

o culture teaches us how to think about ourselves and the social/natural world around us
o culture teaches a version of being human, or how to be human in society
o in some societies, the individual self is important
• self-help
• self-esteem
• self development
o in others, the self is defined by the group, or in relation to the group

Front 18

what is ethnicity?

Back 18

• Ethnicity = is based on a conception of a shared cultural heritage
• An ethnic group is a collectivity of people who believe they share a common history, culture, or ancestry.

Front 19

Franz Boas

Back 19

• Franz Boas found that physical characteristics, or phenotypes, were not associated with any particular behavior, culture, or language
• Culture isn’t biologically transmitted, its passed through the process of enculturation

Front 20

the objective

Back 20

the observable culture and shared symbols of a group

Front 21

the subjective

Back 21

the internal beliefs regarding a shared ancestry, a “we-feeling,” their emotional attachment to a group

Front 22

Patterns of ethnic relations

Back 22

- pluralism
- assimilation
- integration
- segregation
- genocide

Front 23

Pluralism

Back 23

o More than 1 ethnic group occupies a single nation

Front 24

Assimilation

Back 24

o The process of ethnic boundary decay
o Cultural assimilation
o Ethnocide = eliminate a culture
o Biological assimilation
o Segmented assimilation

Front 25

Integration

Back 25

o An ethnic group becomes full participants in the institutions of a society while still maintaining their distinct cultural traits

Front 26

Segregation

Back 26

o Physical and social separation

Front 27

Genocide

Back 27

o Systematic elimination of a particular ethnic group

Front 28

nationalism

Back 28

a set of symbols and beliefs proving the sense of belonging to a single political community

Hint 28

ethnic communities are older than, or have existed before the formation of, nation-states

Front 29

How do people divide their social worlds into different groups?

Back 29

Biology and geographic location has less to do with the way people separate themselves then prejudices and economic competition.

Front 30

Older Classifications of Race

Back 30

• Europeans = Caucasoids
• Africans = Negroids
• Asians = Mongoloids
• Polar = Esquimaux
• American = American

Front 31

Scientific racism

Back 31

• Was the use of pseudo-science to investigate and support differences or superiority between races
• Often to support or validate racist attitudes
• The measuring of skeletons was put to racist ends

Front 32

Race in Contemporary Anthropology

Back 32

• We recognize physical differences, but culture decides which features are more important than others
• Phenotype
• Features and genetics found across all people groups
• <0.1% of genetic material determines phenotypes in humans (skin color, hair type, etc.)

Front 33

How is race ascribed?

Back 33

• Most countries outside the US determine race through descent
• The US uses hypodescent, that is children of mixed parents are ascribed the race of the socially lower group

Front 34

Basic features of language:

Back 34

• There is no such thing as a “primitive” language
• Languages change over time
• Translatable to a certain extent

Front 35

displacement

Back 35

• Humans can use language to talk about abstractions
o Past/present
o Absent or hidden
o Invisible
o Purely abstract or conceptual
o Even non-existent

Front 36

Language builds or constructs:

Back 36

• From individual units of sound (phenemes)…
• To units of meaning (morphemes)…
• To intelligible utterances…
• To socially appropriate speech
o Stories
o Sentences

Front 37

phonology

Back 37

o How language sounds

Front 38

morphology/semantics

Back 38

o How meaning is achieved through the combination or manipulation of sounds

Front 39

Three functions of language:

Back 39

o Convey factual information
o Convey social information
o Construct social relations – make, perform, comment on, and negotiate statuses

Front 40

Language reveals:

Back 40

• Social relations
• Concepts
• Values
• Familiarity or intimacy
• Status/power differences and respect
• Age and gender differences
• Class differences
• Regional, racial, and ethnic differences

Front 41

How is language performative?

Back 41

• Language is a form of social action
• Often has real effects on social world
• Often calls for an active response

Front 42

Diglossia

Back 42

co-existence of two language forms, usually one “high” or prestigious and one “low”

Front 43

Jargon

Back 43

technical and sub-cultural

Front 44

Pidgin

Back 44

o A simplified language derived from two or more languages

Front 45

Creole

Back 45

o Adopt new words into native language
o When a pidgin language gains a large number of native speakers (first language) it is considered a creole
o Pronounce English words differently and with different meanings

Front 46

Language also includes a variety of non-verbal and non-semantic verbal practices:

Back 46

• Kinesics or “body language”
• Proxemics = use of proximity
• Sign languages
• Gestures

Front 47

Linguistic relativity hypothesis

Back 47

• A language is more than a list of words for things, but a set of verbal concepts, ideas, relations, values, meanings, categories, etc.
• Humans are born without any particular language
• As humans acquire a language, they acquire its particular set of verbal concepts, ideas, relations, values, meanings, categories, etc.
• Humans who speak different languages would thus think and experience different concepts, ideas, relations, etc.
• Controversial
• Language influences thought and experience (weak version)
• Language determines thought and experience (strong version)

Front 48

Deities?

Back 48

• Polytheism: belief in several gods
• Monotheism: belief in one single god
• Henotheism (Olympian): one supreme deity, but others exist and are active

Front 49

Ancestral spirits?

Back 49

• Free at physical death – leave the physical body. May return to a new body. May exists before birth or after death.
• May maintain an active interest and/or involvement in society when not embodied.

Front 50

Animism

Back 50

• Belief that all things possess a soul, spirit, or force; that all reality is animate. Plants, animals, springs, mountains, rocks and other natural features may be occupired by spirits or forces. Impresonal forces at work in the world- “Mana”, “Ebo” (Benin), “The Force”.
• Tylor said that all religions starts as animism, then develop into polytheism, then ultimately to monotheism. An evolutionary view-what do you think?

Front 51

Rites of Passage

Back 51

• Rituals which mark important transitions in life
• Three stages (Arnold Van Gennep)”
o Separation
o Transition of “liminality”
o Incorporation

Front 52

productivity

Back 52

the capacity of language to combine meaningless sounds to create new words or to combine words to create new utterances

Front 53

competence

Back 53

in language, the mastery of the elements of a language to be able to make intelligible utterances

Front 54

phoneme

Back 54

the smallest bit of sound in a language

Front 55

semantics

Back 55

the study of meaning of language

Front 56

morpheme

Back 56

the smallest bit of meaningful sound in language, usually a word but also a prefix or suffix or other meaning-conveying sound that may be used in conjunction with a word

Front 57

syntax

Back 57

the rules in a language for how words are combined to make intelligible utterances or speech acts

Front 58

pragmatics

Back 58

the rules or practices regarding how language is used in particular social situations to convey particular social information, such as the relative status or power of the speakers

Front 59

honorifics

Back 59

language forms specialized to indicate the relative social status or relationship of the speakers

Front 60

performatives

Back 60

linguistic utterances that do not merely describe but actually accomplish a transformation in the social world

Front 61

paralanguage

Back 61

the qualities which speakers can add to language to modify the factual or social meaning of speech, such as tone of voice, volume, pitch, speed and cadence, and "non-linguistic" sounds like grunts and snickers

Front 62

kinesics

Back 62

the study of how body movements are used to communicate social information, sometimes referred to as "body language"

Front 63

proxemics

Back 63

the study of how cultures use personal space

Front 64

anti-language

Back 64

a speech style used by individuals or groups in the performance of roles opposing or inverting the society outside of their group

Front 65

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Back 65

linguistic relativity hypothesis

Front 66

self

Back 66

the more or less enduring, bounded, and discrete part of an individual's identity or personality, and the reflexive awareness of this aspect of oneself

Front 67

psychic unity of humanity

Back 67

the attitude that all humans regardless of culture share the same basic thought processes

Front 68

primitive mentality

Back 68

the idea, associated with Lucien Levy-Bruhl, that non-Western and "primitive" peoples possessed a distinctly different, "pre-logical" mode of thought.

Front 69

childrearing practices

Back 69

the methods employed by members of a society to care for children and to prepare those children to become future members of that society

Front 70

basic personality

Back 70

the psychological traits common to most or all of the members of a society

Front 71

national character

Back 71

the alleged common personality characteristics of an entire society or country; especially applied to modern societies or nation-states

Front 72

modal personality

Back 72

the statistically most commonly occurring personality traits in a society

Front 73

sexual dimorphism

Back 73

the occurrence of two physically distinct forms of a species, based on sexual characteristics as well as non-sexual ones such as body size

Front 74

gender

Back 74

the social categories based on physical sexual characteristics and the meanings, behaviors, and values associated with these categories

Front 75

purdah

Back 75

"wearing a veil"

Front 76

honor killing

Back 76

the killing, usually of females, when their behavior has brought shame or dishonor on a family

Front 77

foot-binding

Back 77

a traditional Chinese practice of tying a young girl's feet tightly so that her feet remained small into adulthood

Front 78

Sati

Back 78

the traditional Indian practice in which a widow commits suicide throwing herself on her dead husband's funeral pyre

Front 79

dowry death

Back 79

the killing of wives because the husbands were not satisfied with the dowry payment they received, or else to free them to marry again and collect another dowry

Front 80

female circumcision

Back 80

female genital mutilation; the practice of cutting off some or all of a female's external genitalia

Front 81

Berdache

Back 81

a gender concept in some Native American societies for biological males who adopt certain behavioral and personality characteristics of females

Front 82

Eunuch

Back 82

a gender category involving non-sexual individuals (usually men), who may be castrated or merely celibate, sterile, or lacking sexual desire

Front 83

anthropometry

Back 83

the measurement of human bodies to determine individual and group physical characteristics

Front 84

facial angle

Back 84

the slope of the lower face and jaw away from the flatness of the forehead, used by "scientific racists" to measure the difference between races

Front 85

cephalic index

Back 85

a measurement of the skull/brain volume and shape, based on a ratio of width of the head from ear to ear relative to the depth of the head from front to back

Front 86

miscegenation

Back 86

a term for the undesirable effects of the mixing of different genetic types or populations, especially race groups

Front 87

eugenics

Back 87

the scientific practice of "improving" a population or species by selective breeding or genetic engineering, to breed out "bad" traits and breed in "good" ones

Front 88

endogamy

Back 88

the marriage principle in which an individual marries someone who is in the same cultural category as himself or herself

Front 89

ethnogenesis

Back 89

the process by which ethnic groups come into being and/or attain their cultural characteristics

Front 90

assimilation

Back 90

the social process by which individuals are absorbed into another, usually dominant, cultural group:
- cultural assimilation
- racial assimilation
- social assimilation

Front 91

pluralism

Back 91

the co-existence of multiple social/cultural groups on the same society or state

Front 92

typology of group relations

Back 92

1. assimilation
2. pluralism
3. legal protection of minorities
4. population transfer
5. continued subjugation
6. extermination

Front 93

Functions of religion:

Back 93

1) explanation, especially of origins or causes
2) control, both of culture and of nature
3) legitimation, of cultural and natural realities

Front 94

totemism

Back 94

a religious conception that human individuals or groups have a symbolic or spiritual connection with particular natural species, objects, or phenomena

Front 95

pantheism

Back 95

"everything" is god

Front 96

animism

Back 96

non-human species and phenomena have spiritual components that interact with and sanction humans

Front 97

Shaman

Back 97

a religious specialist, often part-time, who has personal power, based on unique life experiences or apprenticeship to a senior shaman, to communicate, interact, and sometimes struggle with supernatural beings or forces. often a healer.

Front 98

priest

Back 98

a religious specialist, often full-time, who is trained in a religious tradition and acts as a functionary of a religious institution to lead ritual and perpetuate the religious institution

Front 99

sorcerer

Back 99

a religious specialist who uses spells and poisons to achieve supernatural effects

Front 100

contagious magic

Back 100

the belief and practice that objects that come into contact with each other have some supernatural connection with each other

Front 101

sympathetic magic

Back 101

the belief that objects which have something in common with each other have some supernatural connection with each other

Front 102

witch

Back 102

a religious specialist conceived as a human with a supernatural ability to harm others, sometimes through possession of an unnatural bodily organ or an unnatural personality

Front 103

diviner

Back 103

a religious specialist who can "read" information from the supernatural world

Front 104

oracle

Back 104

with the power to forecast the future or answer questions through communication with or manipulation of supernatural forces

Front 105

prophet

Back 105

a human who speaks for or receives messages from spirits

Front 106

ritual

Back 106

any type of formal, repetitive behavior that is felt to have significance beyond the actions themselves

Front 107

rite of intensification

Back 107

a form of ritual in which members of the society are brought into greater communion, in which social bonds are intensified

Front 108

sacrifice

Back 108

a ritual behavior in which something is destroyed or killed

Front 109

liminality

Back 109

the condition of being "in between" or "on the margins" of social roles

Front 110

myth

Back 110

a narrative telling of how some or all of the natural or social world was established

Front 111

prayer

Back 111

speak and interact with supernatural beings