Anthropology Terms Test2.txt

a complex of ideas, activities, and technologies that enable people to survive and even thrive in their environment.

The idea that one must suspend judgment of other people's practices in order to understand them in their own cultural terms.

A society's shared and socially transmitted ideas, values, and perceptions, which are used to make sense of experience and generate behavior and are reflected in that behavior.

The process by which a society's culture is passed on from one generation to the next and individuals become members of their society.

People who collectively and publicly identify themselves as a distinct group based on cultural features such as common origin, language, customs, and traditional beliefs.

This term, rooted in the Greek word ethnikos ("nation") and related to ethnos ("custom"), is the expression of the set of cultural ideas held by an ethnic group.

The belief that the ways of one's own culture are the only proper ones.

The cultural elaborations and meanings assigned to the biological differentiation between the sexes.

The economic foundation of a society, including its subsistence practices and the tools and other material equipment used to make a living.

A society in which two or more ethnic groups or nationalities are politically organized into one territorial state but maintain their cultural differences.

The rule-governed relationships-with all their rights and obligations- that hold members of a society together. This includes households, families, associations, and power relations, including politics.

An organized group or groups of interdependent people who generally share a common territory, language, and culture and who act together for collective survival and well-being.

A distinctive set of ideas, values, and behavior patterns by which a group within a larger society operates, while still sharing common standards with that larger society.

A society's shared sense of identity and worldview. The collective body of ideas, beliefs, and values by which a group of people makes sense of the world - its shape, challenges, and opportunities - and their place in it. This includes religion and national ideology.

A sign, sound, emblem, or other thing that is arbitrarily linked to something else and represents it in a meaningful way.

Those values especially promoted by a particular culture.

Child-rearing practices that foster compliance in the performance of assigned tasks and dependence on the domestic group, rather than reliance on oneself.

A mental disorder specific to a particular ethnic group.

Child-rearing practices that promote independence, self-reliance, and personal achievement.

People born with reproductive organs, genitalia, and/or sex chromosomes that are not exclusively male or female

The body of character traits that occur with the highest frequency in a culturally bounded population.

A special event or ritual to mark the naming of a child.

The distinctive way a person thinks, feels, and behaves.

The ability to identify oneself as an individual, to reflect on oneself, and to evaluate oneself.

People who cross over or occupy a culturally accepted intermediate position in the binary male-female gender construction. Also identified as "third gender" people (or by various culturally specific names such as "two spirits", used in many Native American groups).

An enzyme in the small intestine that enables humans to assimilate lactose.

A sugar that is the primary constituent of fresh milk.

In biology, the taxonomic category of subspecies that is not applicable to humans because the division of humans into discrete types does not represent the true nature of human biological variation. In some societies race is an important social category.

A doctrine of superiority by which one group justifies the dehumanization of others based on their distinctive physical characteristics.

Human genotype that permits efficient storage of fat to draw on in times of food shortage and conservation of glucose and nitrogen.

A series of symbols representing the sounds of a language arranged in a traditional order.

Changing from one mode of speech to another as the situation demands, whether from one language to another or from one dialect of a language to another.

Varying forms of a language that reflect particular regions, occupations, or social classes and that are similar enough to be mutually intelligible.

Referring to things and events removed in time and space.

A branch of linguistics that studies the relationships between language and culture and how they mutually influence and inform each other.

Distinct male and female speech patterns, which vary across social and cultural settings.

Facial expressions and body postures and motions that convey intended as well as subconscious messages.

The entire formal structure of a language, including morphology and syntax.

A system of notating and analyzing postures, facial expressions, and body motions that convey messages.

A system of communication using sounds or gestures that are put together in meaningful ways according to a set of rules.

A group of languages descended from a single ancestral language.

The idea that language to some extent shapes the way in which we view and think about the world around us.

The development of different languages from a single ancestral language.

• The attempt by ethnic minorities and even countries to proclaim independence by purging their language of foreign terms.
• linguistic relativity The idea that distinctions encoded in one language are unique to that language.

The modern scientific study of all aspects of language.

The smallest units of sound that carry a meaning in language. They are distinct from phonemes, which can alter meaning but have no meaning by themselves.

The study of the patterns or rules of word formation in a language (including such things as rules concerning verb tense, pluralization, and compound words).

Voice effects that accompany language and convey meaning. These include vocalizations such as giggling, groaning, or sighing, as well as voice qualities such as pitch and tempo.

The smallest units of sound that make a difference in meaning in a language.

The systematic identification and description of distinctive speech sounds in a language.

The study of language sounds.

The cross-cultural study of humankind?s perception and use of space.

Instinctive sounds or gestures that have a natural or self-evident meaning.

The study of the relationship between language and society through examining how social categories (such as age, gender, ethnicity, religion, occupation, and class) influence the use and significance of distinctive styles of speech.

The patterns or rules by which words are arranged into phrases and sentences.

A language in which tonal language A language in which the sound pitch of a spoken word is an essential part of its pronunciation and meaning.

A set of visible or tactile signs used to represent units of language in a systematic way.