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33 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Family of procreation
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- Formed when one marries and has children
- Nuclear family (parents and children living together) - NB. Family of orientation (the family in which one is born and grows up) - Parental point of view |
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Big man
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- Generous tribal entrepreneur with multivillage support
- Functions as regulator of regional political organization (e.g. Melanesian Islands, Papua New Guinea) - Kapauka Papuans: tonowi (big man) achieved status through hard work + amassing wealth; determined dates for feasts or markets and initiated necessary economic projects - Characteristics: wealth, generosity, eloquence, physical fitness, bravery, supernatural powers, ability to gain support and loyalty of others |
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International culture
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- Cultural traditions that extend beyond national boundaries
- Culture is transmitted through learning (not genetics) so it can be transmitted through diffusion - Cultural traits are spread globally through borrowing, colonialism, migration, and multinational organizations - Roman Catholicism has the same beliefs, symbols, and experiences in many different countries |
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Hidden transcript
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- James Scott: the critique of power that proceeds out of sight of the power holders
- Malay peasants: used a "nibbling" strategy based on small acts of defiance (fail to declare land), rather than public riots, demonstrations, or protests |
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Etic
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- Research strategy emphasizing the ethnographer's explanations and categories (scientist-oriented)
- Realizes that members of culture are too involved to interpret it impartially - Emphasis on what the ethnographer finds important - Illness refers to a culture's (emic) perception and explanation of bad health; disease refers to the scientific (etic) explanation of poor health |
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Agriculture
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- Cultivation using land and labor continuously and intensively
- Common use of domesticated animals (transport, manure), irrigation (schedule planting; Ifugao irrigate fields with canals from rivers, streams, springs), and terracing (Ifugao cut into hillside to avoid crops being washed away) - Main advantage is long-term yield per area is greater and more dependable |
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Negative reciprocity
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- Potentially hostile exchanges among strangers
- Attempt to get something for as little as possible, i.e. through being deceitful or cheating - 19th century horse thievery by North American Plains Indians - Way of reducing negative reciprocity is to engage in silent trade (no direct contact during exchange of goods) |
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Cross vs. parallel cousins
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- Cross cousins: children of a brother and a sister (father's sister's children)
- Parallel cousins: children of two brothers or two sisters (father's brother's or mother's sister's children) - Distinction is essential in societies with unilineal descent; cross cousins always belong to the opposite group and sex with them isn't incestuous because they aren't considered close relatives |
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Ethnography
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- Fieldwork in a particular cultural setting
- Ethnographer gathers data that he/she organizes, describes, analyzes, and interprets to build and present the accounts of their experience - Ethnographer lives in small community, studying local behavior, beliefs, customs etc. - Participant observation, conversation (interviews), key consultants, life histories, genealogical method |
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Acculturation
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- An exchange of cultural features between groups in firsthand contact (mechanism of cultural change)
- Part of each culture change, but each group remains distinct - Exchange and blend of food, recipes, music, dances, clothing, tools, technologies, and languages - Eg. Pidgin, a mixed language that develops to ease communication between members of different societies |
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Endogamy
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- Marriage of people within the same group
- In our society, classes and ethnic groups are semi-endogamous groups - Members of an ethnic group often want their children to marry within that group - Extreme example is caste system in India: stratified, lifelong, ranked groups; intercaste sexual unions lead to ritual impurity - Royal endogamy: Inca Peru, ancient Egypt allowed royal brother-sister marriages to ensure a pure bloodline |
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Hegemony
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- Gramsci (1971): Stratified social order in which subordinates comply with domination by internalizing its values/ideology and accepting its "naturalness"
- Easier to dominate people in their minds than their bodies - Techniques of persuading, coercing, and managing people and of monitoring and recording their beliefs, movements, and contacts |
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Clan
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- Unilineal (either matrilineal or patrilineal) descent group based on stipulated descent (don't try to trace actual genealogical links between members and ancestors)
- Apical ancestor symbolizes social unity and identity of members |
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Ambilineal
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- Flexible descent rule, neither patrilineal nor matrilineal
- Do not automatically exclude either the children of sons or those of daughters - People can choose the descent group they join and can change their descent-group or belong to two or more groups at the same time |
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Polyandry
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- Woman has more than one husband at the same time
- Draupadi (Indian) married her five brothers - In environments with scarce environmental resources to limit human population growth and enhance child survival |
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Progeny price
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- A gift from the husband and his kin to the wife and her kin before, at, or after marriage; legitimizes children born to the woman as members of the husband's descent group.
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Generality
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- Culture pattern or trait that exists in some but not all societies
- Eg. nuclear family (absent among Nayars in India), speaking English (through borrowing or cultural inheritance; reflect colonial history) |
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Pater
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- One's socially recognized father; not necessarily the genitor (biological father)
- South Sudan: a Nuer woman can marry a woman if she has no brother and take on the role of pater |
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Habitus
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- Bourdieu: dispositions, tastes, lifestyle, language use, body posture, values of a social group (guide behavior and decisions you make)
- Acquired through enculturation (children learn from parents/peer interaction) - Embodiment of culture (internalized then externalized) |
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Age set
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- Unisex political group including everyone born within a certain time period
- Eg. Among the pastoral Masai, men born during the same 4 year period were circumcised together and belonged to the same name group throughout their lives |
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Sodality
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- Nonkin groups that serves a specific (linking) purpose, often based on common age or gender, with all-male sodalities more common than all-female ones
- Eg. pantribal sodalities: nonkin-based groups with regional political significance; likely to develop during times of war so that neighboring tribes can work together to defeat their common enemy |
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Archeology
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- The study of human behavior through material remains
- Archeologists find artifacts, material items that humans have made, used, or modified, such as tools, weapons, campsites, buildings, and garbage and use these to - Answers questions such as if the society hunted or domesticated animals, plant food or gathered it, what the members produced or traded. |
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Independent Invention
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- Process by which humans innovate, creatively finding solutions to problems (mechanism of cultural change)
- Cultural generalities exist because people in different cultures are faced with comparable problems and challenges and thus innovate and change in similar ways - Eg. Agriculture in the Middle East and Mexico has led to many social, political, and legal changes, including notions of property and distinctions in wealth, class, and power |
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Pastoral nomadism
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- Annual movement of entire pastoral group (women, men, and children) with herds
- Eg. In Iran, the Basseri traditionally followed a nomadic route more than 300 miles, starting near the coast and taking their animal to graze high above sea level |
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Conflict Resolution
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- Means of settling disputes
- Eg. The aboriginal Inuit: most disputes were between men and originated over women (wife stealing or adultery); the dispute could be settled by killing the thief but this would only result in a blood feud, so rather there would be a public song battle where the audience proclaimed a winner (though return of the wife to her original husband was not guaranteed if he won) |
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Bifurcate merging kinship terminology
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- This terminology bifurcates, or splits, the mother's side and the father's side, but merges same-sex siblings of each parent
- Mother and mother's sister are merged under same term (M = MZ), father and father's brother are merged under same term (F = FB), mother's brother (MB) and father's sister (FZ) have different terms |
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Diachronic vs. synchronic
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- Diachronic: studying societies across time (ex. biological anthropology)
- Synchronic: studying societies at one time (supported by Radcliffe-Brown/structural functionalism; explain cultural features with reference to present institutions) |
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Biological anthropology
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- The study of human biological diversity in time and space
- Human evolution as revealed by the fossil record, human genetics, human growth and development, human biological plasticity, and primatology - Investigates the influence of environment on the body as it grows and matures |
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Cultural particularity
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- A trait or feature of culture that is not generalized or widespread; rather, it is confined to a single place, culture, or society
- Traits that are useful, have the capacity to please large audiences, and don't clash with other traditions are more likely to spread across cultures - Ex. particular food dishes (pork barbecue with a mustard-based sauce available only in South Carolina) - Different cultures emphasize different things; when cultural traits are adopted they are modified to fit the adopting culture (MTV in US is not the same as MTV in Germany or Brazil) |
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Means of production
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- Major productive resources, e.g., land, labor, technology and capital
- Among foragers, ties between people and land were less permanent than among food producers - Among food producers, rights to the means of productions come through kinship and marriage - Access to both land and labor comes through social links such as kinship, marriage, and descent - Crafts specialization reflects the social and political environment (rather than natural environment/available resources) |
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Balanced reciprocity
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- Exchanges between people who are more distantly related than members of the same band or household
- In a horticultural society, for example, a man presents a gift to someone in another village; he expects a gift in return (not immediately) and the relationship will suffer if no gift is returned |
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Lineage
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- Unilineal (either matrilineal or patrilineal) descent group based on demonstrated descent
- Descent from common apical ancestor - Members can name their forebears in each generation (not necessarily accurate) |
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Bifurcate collateral kinship terminology
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- This terminology is the most specific and and has separate terms for each of the 6 types of the parental generation
- Societies that use it are in North Africa and the Middle East, commonly offshoots of the same ancestral group - Used when a child has parents of different ethnic backgrounds and uses terms for uncles and aunts derived from different languages - M, F, MB, MZ, FB, FZ |
