Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;
Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;
H to show hint;
A reads text to speech;
115 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Define Ecosystem
|
A system, or a functioning whole, composed of both the natural environment and all the organisms livin within it
|
|
Define Cultural Evolution
|
Cultural change over time
Not to be confused with "Progress" |
|
Define Progress
|
In anthropology, a relative concept signifying that a society or country is moving forward to a better, more advanced stage in its cultural development toward greater perfection
|
|
Define Convergent Evolution
|
In cultural evolution, the development of similar cultural adaptations to similar environmental conditions by different peoples with different ancestral cultures
|
|
Define Parallel Evolution
|
In cultural evolution, the development of similar cultural adaptations to similar environmental conditions by peoples whose ancestral cultures were already somewhat alike
|
|
Define Culture Area
|
A geographic region in which a number of societies follow similar patterns of life
|
|
Define Food Foraging
|
A mod of subsistence involving some combination of hunting, fishing, and gather of wild plant foods
|
|
Define Carrying Capacity
|
The number of people that the available resources can support at a given level of food-getting techniques
|
|
Define Neolithic
|
The New Stone Age
Beginning 10,000ya A prehistoric period in which peoples possessed stone based technologies and demanded on domesticated pants and/or animals for subsistence |
|
Define Neolithic Revolution
|
The domestication of plants and animals by peoples with stone-based technologies, beginning about 10,000ya and leading to radical transformations in cultural systems
Sometimes referred to as the Neolithic Transition |
|
Define Horticulture
|
The cultivation of crops in food gardens
Carried out with simple hand tools such as digging sticks and hoes |
|
Define Slash and Burn Cultivation
|
An extensive form of horticulture in which the natural vegetation is cut
The Slash is then burned and crops are planted among the ashes Common technique in horticultural societies Also known as Swidden Farming |
|
Define Agriculture
|
Intensive crop cultivation
Employing plows, fertilizers, and/or irrigation |
|
Define Pastoralism
|
The breeding and managing of migratory herds of domesticated grazing animals
|
|
Define Peasant
|
A small scale producer of crops or livestock
Living on land self owned or rented in exchange for labor crops or money Exploited by more powerful groups in a complex society |
|
Define Industrial Society
|
A society in which human labor, hands tools, and animal power are largely replaced by machines
With an economy primarily based on big factories |
|
Define Industrial Food Production
|
Large-scale businesses involved in mass food production, processing, and marketing, which primarily rely on labor-saving machines
|
|
Define Marriage
|
A culturally sanctioned union between two or more people that establishes certain rights and obligations between the people, between them and their children, and between them and their in-laws
Such marriage rights and obligations most often include, but are not limited to, sex, labor, property, childbearing, exchange, and status |
|
Define Consanguineal Kin
|
Biologically related relatives
Commonly referred to as "blood relatives" |
|
Define Affinal kin
|
People related through marriage
|
|
Define Incest Taboo
|
The Prohibition of sexual relations between closely related individuals
|
|
Define Endogamy
|
Marriage within a particular group or category of individuals
|
|
Define Exogamy
|
Marriage outside a particular group or category of individuals
|
|
Define Monogamy
|
A marriage form in which both partners have just one spouse
Most common form of marriage worldwide |
|
Define Serial Monogamy
|
A marriage form in which a man or a woman marries or lives with a series of partners in succession
Common where divorce rates are high |
|
Define Polygamy
|
A marriage form in which one individual has multiple spouses at the same time
Includes Polygyny and Polyandry Monogamy is often more prevalent in societies that accept or encourage polygamy for economic reasons |
|
Define Polygyny
|
A marriage form in which a man is married to two or more women at the same time; a form of ploygamy
|
|
Define Polyandry
|
A marriage form in which a woman is married to two or more men at one time; a form of polygamy
|
|
Define Group Marriage
|
A marriage form in which several men and women have sexual access to one another
Also called "co-marriage" |
|
Define Fictive Marriage
|
A marriage form in which a proxy is used as a symbol of someone not physically present to establish the social status of a spouse and heirs
|
|
Define Parallel Cousin
|
The child of a father's brother or a mother's sister
|
|
Define Cross Cousin
|
The child of a mother's brother or a father's sister
|
|
Define Bridewealth
|
The money or valuable goods paid by the groom or his family to the bride's family upon marriage
Also called a "bride-price" Usually occurs in patrilineal societies, bride will become member of husband's household |
|
Define Bride Service
|
A designated period of time when the groom works for the bride's family
|
|
Define Dowry
|
A payment at the time of a woman's marriage that comes from her inheritance
Made to either her or her husband |
|
Define Family
|
Two or more people related by blood, marriage, or adoption
Can take many forms |
|
Define Household
|
A domestic unit of one or more persons living in one residence
Other than family members, a household may include non relatives, such as servants |
|
Define Conjugal Family
|
A family established through marriage
|
|
Define Consanguineal Family
|
A family of blood relatives
Consisting of related women, their brothers, and the woman's offspring |
|
Define Nuclear Family
|
A group consisting of one or two parents and dependent offspring
May include a stepparent, step siblings, and adopted children |
|
Define Extended Family
|
Two or more closely related nuclear families clustered together in a large domestic group
|
|
Define Patrilocal Residence
|
A residence pattern in which a married couple lives in the husband's father's place of residence
|
|
Define Matrilocal residence
|
A residence pattern in which a married couple lives in the wife's mother's place of residence
|
|
Define Neolocal Residence
|
A residence pattern in which a married couple establishes its household in a location apart from either the husband's or the wife's relatives
|
|
Define Ambilocal Residence
|
A residence pattern in which a married couple may choose either matrilocal or patrilocal residence
|
|
Define Kinship
|
A network of relatives into which individuals are born and married and with whom they cooperated based on customarily prescribed rights and obligations
|
|
Define Descent Group
|
Any kin-group whose members share a direct line of descent from a real (historical) or fictional common ancestor
|
|
Define Unilineal Descent
|
Descent traced exclusively through either the male or female line of ancestry to establish group membership
|
|
Define Matrilineal Descent
|
Descent traced exclusively through the female line of ancestry to establish group membership
|
|
Define Patrilineal Descent
|
Descent traced exclusively through the male line of ancestry to establish group membership
|
|
Define Lineage
|
A Unilineal kin-group descended from a common ancestor or founder who lived four to six generations ago and in which relationships among members can be exactly stated in genealogical terms
|
|
Define Clan
|
An extended unilineal kin-group whose members claim decent from a remote ancestor, usually legendary or mythological
Often consisting of several lineages |
|
Define Bilateral Descent
|
Descent traced equally through father and mother's ancestors
Associating each individual with blood relatives on both sides of the family |
|
Define Fission
|
In kinship studies, the splitting of a decent group into two or more new decent groups
|
|
Define Totemism
|
The belief that people are related to particular animals, plants, or natural objects by virtue of descent from common ancestor spirits
|
|
Define Phratry
|
A unilineal descent group composed of at least two clans that supposedly share a common ancestry, whether or not they really do
|
|
Define Moiety
|
Each group, usually consisting of several clans, that results from a division of a society into two halves on the basis of descent
|
|
Define Kindred
|
A grouping of blood relatives based on bilateral decent
Includes all relatives with whom EGO shares at least one grandparent, great-grandparent, or event great-great-grandparent, on his or her father's AND mother's side |
|
Define EGO
|
In kinship studies, the central person from whom the degree of each kinship is traced
|
|
Define Eskimo System
|
Kinship reckoning in which the nuclear family is emphasized by specifically identifying the mother, father, brother, and sister while lumping together all other relatives into broad categories such as uncle, aunt, and cousin
Also known as the "Lineal System" |
|
Define Iroquois System
|
Kinship reckoning in which a father and father's brother are referred to by a single term, as are a mother and mother's sister
But a father's sister and a mother's brother are given separate terms Parallel cousins are classified separately but not equated with relatives of some other generation |
|
Define Hawaiian system
|
Kinship reckoning in which all relatives of the same sex and generation are referred to by the same term
Also known as the "Generational system" |
|
Define Worldview
|
The collective body of ideas that members of a culture generally share concerning the ultimate shape and substance of their reality
|
|
Define Religion
|
An Organized system of ideas about the spiritual sphere or the supernatural, along with associated cerimonial practices by which people try to interpret and/or influence aspects of the univers otherwise beyond their control
|
|
Define Spirituality
|
Concern with the sacred, as distinguished from material matters
In contrast to religion, it is often individual rather than collective and does not require a distinctive format or traditional organization |
|
Define Myth
|
A sacred narrative that explains the fundamentals of human existence
Where we and everything in our world came from, why we are here, and where we are going |
|
Define Monotheism
|
The belief in only one supremely powerful divinity as creator and master of the universe
|
|
Define Polytheism
|
The belief in multiple gods and/or goddesses
A contrast to Monotheism |
|
Define Pantheon
|
All the gods and goddesses of a people
|
|
Define Animism
|
The belief that nature is enlivened or energized by distinct personalized spirit beings separable from bodies
|
|
Define Animatism
|
The belief that nature is enlivened or energized by an impersonal spiritual force or supernatural energy
May make itself manifest in any special place, thing, or living creature |
|
Define Priest of Priestess
|
A full-time religious specialist formally recognized for his or her role in guiding the religious practices of others and for contacting and influencing supernatural powers
|
|
Define Spiritual Lineage
|
A principle of leadership in which divine authority is passed down from a spiritual founding figure, such as a prophet or saint, to a chain of successors
|
|
Define Shaman
|
A person who at will enters an altered state of consciousness to contact and utilize an ordinarily hidden reality in order to acquire knowledge, power, and to help others
Term widely applied to a variety of part-time spiritual leaders in many cultures |
|
Define Ritual
|
A culturally prescribed symbolic act or procedure designed to guide members of a community in an orderly way through personal and collective transitions
|
|
Define Taboo
|
Culturally prescribed avoidances involved ritual prohibitions which, if not observed, lead to supernatural punishment
|
|
Describe the Shamanic Complex
|
Shamanic healing can only take place within a "magic field" created when the shaman and patient, as well as their community, are all convinced the shaman is a genuine healing master using appropriate techniques that are effective and beneficial
|
|
Define Rite of Purification
|
A symbolic act carried out by an individual or a group to establish or restore purity when someone has violated a taboo or is otherwise unclean
|
|
Define Rite of Passage
|
A ritual that marks an important ceremonial movement when members of a society move from one distinctive social stage in life to another, such as birth, marriage, and death,
Features three phases: separation, transition, and incorporation |
|
Define Rite of Intensification
|
A ritual that takes place during a crisis in the life of the group and serves to bind individuals together
|
|
Define Magic
|
Specific formulas and actions used to compel supernatural powers to act in certain ways fro good or evil purposes
Includes forms such as Imitative magic, Contagious magic, Divination, and Witchcraft |
|
Define Imitative Magic
|
Magic based on the principle that like produces like
Sometimes called "Sympathetic Magic" |
|
Define Contagious Magic
|
Magic based ont the principle that things or persons once in contact can influence each other after the contact is brocken
|
|
Define Divination
|
A magical procedure or spiritual ritual designed to discern what is not knowable by ordinary means
Such as foretelling the future by interpreting omens |
|
Define Witchcraft
|
Magic rituals intended to cause misfortune or inflict harm
|
|
Define Pilgrimage
|
A devotion in motion
Traveling, often on foot, to a sacred or holy site to reach for enlightenment, prove devotion, and/or experience a miracle |
|
Define Desecration
|
Ideologically inspired violation of a sacred site intended to inflict harm, if only symbolically, on people judged to have impure, false, or even evil beliefs and ritual practices
|
|
Define Revitalization Movements
|
Social movements for radical cultural reform in response to widespread social disruption and collective feelings of great stress and despair
|
|
Define Syncrtism
|
The creative blending of indigenous and foreign beliefs and practices into new cultural forms
|
|
Define Secularization
|
A process of cultural change in which a population tends toward a nonreligious worldview, ignoring or rejecting institutionalized spiritual beliefs and rituals
|
|
Define Art
|
The Creative use of human imagination to aesthetically interpret, express, and engage live, modifying experienced reality in the process
|
|
Define Performance Art
|
A creatively expressed promotion of ideas by artful means dramatically staged to challenge opinion and/or provode purposeful action
|
|
Define Visual Art
|
Art created primarily for visual perception, ranging from etchings and painting on various surfaces (including the Human body) to sculptures and weavings made with an array of materials
|
|
Define Verbal Art
|
Creative word use on display that includes stories, myths, legends, tales, poetry, metaphor, rhyme, chants, drama, can, proverbs, jokes, puns, riddles, and tongue twisters
|
|
Define Folklore
|
A term coined by 19th-century scholars studying the unwritten stories and other artistic traditions of rural peoples to distinguish between "fold art" and the "fine aret" of the literate elite
|
|
Define Legend
|
A story about a memorable event or figure handed down by tradition and told as true but without historical evidence
|
|
Define Epic
|
A long, dramatic narrative, recounting the celebrated deeds of a historic or legendary hero, often sung or recited in poetic language
|
|
Define Tale
|
A creative narrative that is recognized as fiction for entertainment but may also draw a moral or teach a practical lesson
|
|
Define Motif
|
A story situation in a tale
|
|
Define Ethnomusicology
|
The study of society's music in terms of its cultural setting
|
|
Define Music
|
Broadly speaking, an art form whose medium is sound and silence
A form of communication that includes a nonverbal auditory component with elements of tonality, pitch, rhythm, and timbre |
|
Short Answer: Discuss the various forms of marriage relationships in culture, including monogamy, polygyny, group marriage, and fictive marriage
|
Often based upon economic factors, what gender tend to provide the means of sustenance
Used to regulate sex and reproduction, inheritance, and property Different forms of marriage distinct in terms of the number and gender of spouses invovled Also, definitions of each of these (other cards) |
|
Short Answer: Explain the relationship between marriage and economic exchange that may accompany marriage in some cultures
|
Marriage often formalized into an economic exchange
Moving of individuals from one household to another changes the economic production of both, often leading to traditions of compensation (ie dowry, bride service and bridewealth) |
|
Short Answer: Why do some cultures have shamans as opposed to priests?
How does one become a shaman? How can the widespread occurrence of shamanism be explained? What role(s) do shamans play in society and how do they perform the tasks that they do? |
Many societies do not have the resources necessary to support full-time religious professionals (ie preists)
One may become a shaman through training and experience, often including psychological and emotional ordeals The practice of part-time religious figures (ie shamanism) has existed far longer than full-time ones Shamans perform a variety of tasks, including spiritual healing, divination, and other forms of magic, often by entering a trance |
|
Short Answer: Describe the role of religion in culture stability and culture change
Use current examples to show how religion can be a force for conservatism as well as for change |
Religion can be used as both a tool for change, such as in syncretic religion where differing ideas are brought together, as well as against it, such as when religious fervor grows in response to outside forces
|
|
Short Answer: Explain why anthropologists are interested in art and how that interest has contributed to the understanding of cultures.
Give two specific examples to illustrate your points |
Anthropologist can find through art the collective ideas, perceptions, values, and beliefs of a culture or society. Comparing art of different cultures can show us both the differences and similarities different peoples have.
example 1: christian art often shares certain religious iconography, such as the painted depictions of sacred events from Europe and those of Latin America. the comparison also shows aspects of the native american cultures upon the Christian religion that was brought across the atlantic Example 2: The tale of "father, son, and donkey" is one that imparts certain lessons upon the listener, granting them insight on what traits are desirable (confidence in the face of arbitrary criticism) |
|
Short Answer: How does the vision of an artist in western culture differ from the concept of artist in many non-western societies?
|
The merits of western are are generally conceived based upon the originality of the artists' work
Much non-western art is seen as a medium for messages about the community and its shared symbolism, such as kinship |
|
Short Answer: Explain the differences between horticultural societies and those which use agriculture to sustain their society
|
Horticultural societies: small-scale, not labor-intensive, tend not to use extensive irrigation or fertilization, used for sustenance means rather than emphasizing the production of surplus, tends to be more ecologically sound, tendency toward egalitarianism
Agricultural societies: often large-scale and labor-intensive, tend to irrigate and fertilize, produces surplus to sustain non-agricultural specialists, tend to be highly stratified |
|
Short Answer: Critique the Western notion of "progress" from an anthropological viewpoint
|
Western society tends to view cultural evolution as a progression towards a superior society. this often became a Eurocentric viewpoint, with the west as the most "advanced" culture
However, the so-called progress does not always actually benefit society. the development of agriculture for example lowered the quality of life for many, not to mention facilitating the stratification of society. It is not possible to academically compare cultures with one being "better" than the other |
|
Define and contrast moiety, phratry, clan and lineage
|
A Moiety can be divided into Phratries, which are divided into clans, which are divided into lineages
Lineages and Clans often associate themselves around a ancestor which they all claim to be descended from, whether or not this individual is historical Phratry and Moiety groups also claim common ancestry, although they usually cannot specify a particular ancestor whom they all share |
|
A culture's decent system is closely tied to the related society's economic base. Explain why this is so
|
The sex by which a gender dictates descent from is usually tied to the form of sustenance the culture participates in. with unilateral decent arising when one gender has a more vital sustenance role than the other
Matrilineal systems are found in societies where women perform vital roles, such as in horticulture Patrilineal systems are found in societies where men perform the vital roles, such as in labor intensive agriculture. Bilateral decent arrises when the labors to attain sustenance are evenly distributed between genders |
|
Contrast the matrilineal decent system with the paternal
|
Matrilineal decent: common where women control the primary means of sustenance. women control business decisions of the households ,though men often still hold political authority, and share control of resources with their brothers
Patrilineal decent: Found in societies where men are responsible for the primary means of sustenance. men control the household and hold decision making power |
|
From "Peasant Protest, Rebellion and Resistance": how did the green revolution erode traditional ties of dependence between those with more land and those who were landless?
|
Thanks to new forms of agricultural production, the rich landowners no longer needed to rely upon the poor as a source of labor. This removed the incentive of the rich to provide charity to the lower class, including the zakat and hosting feasts
|
|
From "Peasant Protest, Rebellion and Resistance": "when most Kikuya refused to accept British directive on the control of land and agricultural activities, they were evicted and sent back to the reserves." What were the resserves?
Why were they another flash point for the revolt? |
The reserves were designated areas that the native Africans were forced to live. These reserves became incredibly overcrowded and those who lived there suffered under abominable conditions, provoking much negative sentiment towards the whites
|
|
What is NAFTA and what did it mean for small peasant farmers?
What are ejidos? What provision did the Constitution of 1917 re-establish? |
The North American Free Trade Agreement reduced tariffs and other obstacles to international trade on the continent. This threatened the livelihoods of many peasant farmers, who would now compete with cheeper crops from the US as well as rancher encroaching on their land
The 1917 constitution of Mexico had a provision of land reform which allowed peasants to petition the government for land seized during the revolution. This system provided Ejidos, communally owned plots of land, to post-revolution Mexico. The rights to land the peasants hold in the constitution was threatened by the forces set in motion by NAFTA and thus were a common rallying cry for the revolution. |