Anthropology Exam 2

• –Archaeology
• –Physical Anthropology
• –Cultural Anthropology
• –Linguistic Anthropology

Holistic, Comparative, and Fieldwork-based

• •Ethnocentrism
• –frames of reference
• •Cultural Relativity
• •Commonalities

the four fields, and applied anthropology

• -Major research tool of cultural anthropology
• -Includes both fieldwork among people in society and written results of fieldwork

late 19th Century as a comparative science

small-scale, technologically simpler societies

evolutionary scales of cultural development

• -father of American anthropology
• -insisted that grasping whole of culture could be achieved only through fieldwork
• -Argued that cultures are products of their own history and are unique and particular
• -Insisted that anthropologists free themselves as much as possible from ethnocentrism and practice cultural relativism

• -Stressed interrelations among elements of culture
• -Emphasized notion of function: contributions made by social practices and institutions to maintenance and stability of a society

• -systematic exploration of a society
• -Develops holistic perspective about culture
• -involves living with group of people, participating in, and observing their behavior

-The fieldwork technique that involves gathering cultural data by observing people’s behavior and participating in their lives

A committee organized by a university or other research institution that approves, monitors, and reviews all research that involves human subjects

Feelings of alienation and helplessness that result from rapid immersion in a new and different culture

• -Participant observation
• -Interviewing
• -Photography
• -Mapping
• -Silent observation
• -Serving apprenticeships

Emic perspective and Etic perspective

examining a society using concepts and distinctions that are meaningful to that culture

examining societies using concepts, categories, and rules derived from science

an outsider’s perspective

• -Sometimes also called key informant.
• -Person from whom an anthropologist gathers data

attempt to find general principles or laws that govern cultural phenomena

an ethnographic database that includes descriptions of many cultures and is used for cross-cultural research

• -Encourages research that elicits a female perspective in a society, acknowledges
• significant role that females play in all human cultures, and approaches culture from behind-the-scenes as well as publicly

-Theory that focuses on issues of power and voice

Ethnography that gives priority to cultural consultants on the topic, methodology, and written results of research

Includes political action as a major goal of fieldwork.

Engaged anthropologists have no difficulty choosing sides in political contests

• -An anthropologist who does fieldwork in his or her own culture
• -Anthropologists must maintain social distance of outsider

• -Obtain consent of people to be studied
• -Protect them from risk and respect their privacy and dignity
• -Protect other anthropologists and future research possibilities.
• -Publish research findings

-The ways in which societies transform material resources of the environment into food, clothing, and shelter

• -Seasonal variation in the environment.
• -Environmental variations such as drought, flood, or animal diseases

• •Foraging
• •Pastoralism
• •Horticulture
• •Agriculture
• •Industrialism

• •Relies on food naturally available in the environment
• •Strategy for 99% of time humans have been on earth
• •Limits population growth and complexity of social organization

• •Caring for domesticated animals which produce both meat and milk
• •Involves a complex interaction among animals, land, and people
• •Found along with cultivation or trading relations with food cultivators

• •Found mostly in East Africa
• •Men and boys move animals regularly throughout the year to different areas as
• pastures become available at different altitudes or in different climatic zones
• •Women and children and some men remain at a permanent village site

• •The whole population—men, women, and children—moves with the herds throughout the year
• •There are no permanent villages

• •Production of plants using non-mechanized technology
• •Plant and harvest with simple tools, without use of animals, irrigation, or plows
• •Typically a tropical forest adaptation and requires cutting and burning of jungle to clear fields for cultivation

-(slash and burn)

-A form of cultivation in which a field is cleared by felling the trees and burning the brush

• (Intensive Cultivation)
• •Production of plants using plows, animals, and soil and water control
• •Associated with:
• –Sedentary villages, the rise of cities
• –Occupational diversity
• –Social stratification

Rural cultivators who produce for the subsistence of their households, but are also integrated into larger, complex state societies

• •Population growth
• •Expanded consumption of resources
• •International expansion
• •Occupational specialization
• •Shift from subsistence strategies to wage labor

• -Part of society that deals with production, distribution, and consumption of
• goods and services

the study of how the choices people make determine how their society uses its resources to produce and distribute goods and services

defined by economists is choosing a course of action that pursues the course of perceived maximum benefit

• -Each society has rules to regulate access to resources
• -Productive resources
• -Usufructory rights

Land, water, labor, and the materials from which tools are made

-used to create other goods or information: Material goods, natural resources, or information

The right to use something (usually land) but not to sell it or alter it in substantial ways

• -Productive resources that are used with the primary goal of increasing their owner’s
• financial wealth

-Principal form of economic organization in capitalist societies

-Labor is just  one aspect of membership in a social group such as the family

-In most nonindustrial societies, production is based around the household

• -Universal characteristic of society
• -In foraging societies, men generally hunt and women generally gather
• -In agricultural societies, both men and women play important roles in food production

• -Reciprocity
• -Redistribution
• -Market exchange

Mutual give-and-take among people of equal status

Generalized reciprocity and Balanced reciprocity

A distribution of goods with no immediate or specific return expected

Exchange of goods of nearly equal value, with a clear obligation to return them within a specified time limit

A pattern of exchange among many trading partners in the Trobriands and other South Pacific islands

Exchange in which goods are collected from members of the group and then redistributed to the group

Ex. Potlatch, Leveling mechanism, Cargo system

a competitive giveaway practiced by Kwakiutl and other groups of the northwest coast of North America

a practice, value, or form of social organization that evens out wealth within a society

a ritual system common in Central and South America in which wealthy people are required to hold a series of costly ceremonial offices

-Economic system in which goods and services are bought and sold at a price determined by supply and demand

• -Most productive resources are owned by a small portion of the population
• -Most individuals’ primary resource is their own labor
• -value of workers’ contribution to production is always intended to be greater than the wages they receive

Marxist term for the difference between the wages a worker is paid and the value of their contribution to production to the capitalist