Anthropology Chapter 1 Vocabulary

The academic discipline that studies all of humanity from a broad perspective

The investigation of past cultures through excavation of material remains

Subfield that focuses on the interrelationships between language and other aspects of a people's culture.

Subfield whose practitioners use anthropological methods, theories, and concepts to solve practical, real-world problems; practitioners are often employed by a governmental agency or private organization.

Major subfield of anthropology that studies the biological dimensions of humans and other primates.

The subfield that studies the way of life of contemporary and historically recent human populations.

The insistence by anthropologists that valid hypotheses and theories about humanity be tested with information from a wide range of cultures.

The notion that one should not judge the behaviour of other peoples using the standards of one's own culture.

A written description of the way of life of some human population.

The attitude or opinion that the morals, values, and customs of one's own culture are superior to those of other peoples.

A specialization of physical anthropology that identifies and analyzes human skeletal remains; forensic anthropologists usually work for or consult with law enforcement agencies.

Ethnographic research that involves observing and interviewing the members of a culture to describe their current way of life.

The process of integrating the world's peoples economically, socially, politically, and culturally into a single world system or community.

Field that investigates the past of literate peoples through excavation of sites and analysis of artifacts and other material remains.

Physical differences among human populations; an interest of physical anthropologists.

The assumption that any aspect of a culture is integrated with other aspects, so that no dimension of culture can be understood in isolation.

The subfield that researches the connections between cultural beliefs and habits and the spread and treatment of diseases and illnesses.

Field that uses excavation of sites and analysis of material remains to investigate cultures that existed before the development of writing.

The study of primates, including monkeys and apes; subfield of biological anthropology.

The specialization of physical anthropology that investigates the biological evolution of the human species.

The subfield that usually includes anthropologists whose primary employment is in nonacademic organizations, such as corporations, schools, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and the like.