Question | Answer |
change in biological structure/life-ways of an individual/population by which it becomes better fitted to survive & reproduce in its environment | adaptation |
theoretical approach that defines culture in terms of rules & meanings underlying human behavior, rather than behavior itself | cognitive anthropology |
theoretical approach that regards cultural patterns as adaptive responses to the basic problems of human survival & reproduction | cultural ecology |
theoretical perspective holds primary task of anthropology is to account for similarities & differences among cultures &, this can best be done by studying material constraints to which human existence is subject | cultural materialism |
anthropological perspective that focuses on culture as the principal force in shaping the typical personality of a society & role of personality in maintenance of cultural institutions | culture & personality theory |
spread of cultural elements from one culture to another through cultural contact | diffusion |
theoretical perspective that holds that the ways in which cultural institutions work can best be understood by examining their effects on the environment | ecological functionalism |
process of learning to be a member of a particular cultural group | enculturation |
field of anthropological research focused on describing the ways in which different cultures classify and understand plants | ethnobotany |
field of anthropological research devoted to describing the medical systems and practices of different cultures | ethnomedicine |
theoretical approach focusing on ways in which members of a culture classify their world & holds that anthropology should be study of cultural systems of classification | ethnoscience |
anthropological theory that specific cultural institutions function to support structure of society or serve needs of individuals in society | functionalism |
new variation on an existing cultural pattern that is subsequently accepted by other members of the society | innovation |
theoretical approach that emphasizes culture as a system of meaning and proposes that the aim of cultural anthropology is to interpret the meanings that cultural acts have for their participants | interpretive (symbolic) anthropology |
theoretical perspective concerned with the historical change of culture from small-scale societies to extremely large-scale societies | neo-evolutionism |
theoretical perspective concerned with applying the insights of Marxist thought to anthropology | neo-Marxism |
modify Marxist analysis to make it appropriate to the investigation of small-scale, non-Western societies | neo-Marxists |
ideal cultural pattern that influences behavior in a society | norm |
ability of humans to change their behavior in response to a wide range of environmental demands | plasticity |
theoretical perspective that explores the relationship between human cultural behavior and genetics | sociobiology |
theoretical perspective that holds that all cultures reflect similar deep, underlying patterns & that anthropologists should attempt to decipher these patterns | structural anthropology |
system of perceptions, values, beliefs, & customs that are significantly different from those of a larger, dominant culture within the same society | subculture |
something that stands for something else | symbol |
transformation of adopted cultural traits, resulting in new cultural forms | transculturation |
culturally defined idea of what is true, right, & beautiful | value |
everything that makes us human is learned through participation in a __ system | sociocultural |
developmental disorder characterized by difficulties in both verbal/nonverbal communication, impairment of social interaction & host of other symptoms | autism |
autism is generally diagnosed between the ages of 18-36 months & may affects 1 in every | 150 children |
autism that causes the individual to be silent & withdrawn | profound |
autism that causes is mild to moderate; able to master language & learn to participate in society; some have exceptional intellectual skills | Asperger's syndrome |
associate professor of animal science at Colorado University w/ Asperger's syndrome | Temple Grandin |
Oliver Slacks describes autistics as those who think in extremely __ terms | concrete |
Oliver Slacks describes autistics as those who have profound difficulty understanding social conventions & unwritten __ __ of every sort | cultural rules |
as a result of Grandin lacking the implicit knowledge which normal people accumulate in experiences/encounters she must | compute others intentions & state of mind |
Grandin describes herself as an anthropologist | on Mars |
Grandin has no __ __ for the things going on around her | intuitive feel |
if we do not internalize constraints, assumptions, & patterns imposed by culture it is difficult to express our | human qualities & abilities |
1873, introduced concept of culture as explanation for differences among human societies | Sir Edward Burnett Tylor |
people are not born knowing their culture; involve symbols; are patterned & integrated; shared by members of group; adaptive & maladaptive; subject to change | all cultures share 6 characteristics |
anthropologists have different ideas about which aspects of culture are __ & ways in which it should be __ | fundamental; studied |
lies at the heart of anthropology | theory |
directs those who adopt it to study different aspects of society and use techniques | theoretical position |
may overlap/reveal totally different aspects of society | definitions of culture |
universal human culture is shared, in different degrees, by all societies; EB Taylor & LH Morgan | theory - 19th-century evolution |
groups of people share sets of symbols & practices that bind them into societies; Emile Durkheim & Marcel Mauss | theory - turn-of-the-century sociology |
cultures are the result of the specific histories of the people who share them; Franz Boas & AL Kroeber | theory - American historical particularism |
social practices support society's structure/fill the needs of individuals; Bronislaw Malinowski & AR Radcliffe Brown | theory - Functionalism |
culture is personality writ large. it both shapes & is shaped by personalities of its members; Ruth Benedict & Margaret Mead | theory - Culture & personality |
culture is the way in humans adapt to environment & make their lives secure; Julian Steward & Leslie White | theory - Cultural ecology & neo-evolutionism |
physical & economic causes give rise to cultures & explain changes within them; Morton Fried & Marvin Harris | theory - ecological materialism |
culture is a mental template that determines how members of a society understand their world; Harold Conklin & Stephen Tyler | theory - ethnoscience & cognitive anthropology |
universal original human culture can be discovered through analysis & comparison of myths/customs of many cultures; Claude Levi Strauss | theory - structural anthropology |
culture is visible expression of underlying genetic coding; EO Wilson & Jerome Barkow | theory - sociobiology |
roles of women & ways societies understand sexuality are central to understanding culture; Sherry Ortner & Michelle Rosaldo | theory - anthropology & gender |
culture is way in which members of society understand who they are & give lives meaning; Mary Douglas & Clifford Geertz | theory - symbolic & interpretive anthropology |
because understanding of cultures most reflect observer's bias culture can never be completely/accurately described; Renato Rosaldo & Vincent Crapanzano | theory - postmodernism |
particularly fond of eating cicadas | Aristotle |
eaten in Northern Europe well into 19th-century | some species of beetles |
all humans remain physically, emotionally, & intellectually __ well into their teen years/early 20s | immature |
lengthy period of immaturity allows time for enormous amount of | childhood learning |
lengthy period of immaturity demands that human cultures be designed to provide relatively | stable environments |
lengthy period of immaturity means that very few __ __ need to be under genetic or biological control | specific behaviors |
infants grow into children and later into an adult, not simply as a human but as a | particular kind of human |
each society has __ & __ means of enculturation | formal; informal |
in all societies the biological processes of conception, birth, maturation & death are less important that the | social understandings involved |
when a child becomes a human being is an example of the | cultural nature of growth |
being born does not necessarily make an individual | a human |
refers to point at which one is considered a human being & a member of a human society | social birth |
not really children but spirits who come to the world to play & cause distress to their communities; killed & buried w/ no funeral; Ghana | chichuru |
a newborn may be a __ __ if it has physical abnormalities, birth is followed by tragic events, it cries constantly, or irregularities in mother's sexual behavior/pregnancy | spirit child |
15% of deaths of children <3 months in Ghana were considered deaths of | chichuru (spirit child) |
often it is a social birth rather than biological birth that is marked by | ritual |
newborn not considered person until age of 3 months when "face opening" ceremony takes place | Toda of India |
infant is brought outdoors, face is unveiled at dawn, & introduce to temple, nature, buffaloes, & clan relatives | face opening ceremony |
child is not considered a social person until it shows physical & emotional sign of being able to survive | impoverished section of northeastern Brazil |
in an impoverished section of northeastern Brazil, infants who are small & sickly have an | aversion to living |
in an impoverished section of northeastern Brazil if infants develop acute symptoms (i.e. convulsions) they are | left to die |
in the impoverished section of northeastern Brazil infant deaths are viewed as nature taking its course or that the child | wants to die |
humanness is a __ not a biological destination | cultural |
American abortion debate is really about when one becomes human, as a __ __, not when something is alive | social person |
science can identify the moment of conception/hour of birth, but only culture can determine | when a human being comes into existence |
recognition of human status is the beginning phase in | human development |
child-rearing practices in all cultures are designed to produce adults who know the __ __ of their society | cultural content |
involves patterning children's attitudes, motivations, values, perceptions, & beliefs so that they can function in their society | child-rearing practices |
hunting people of Arctic; learn largely by observing elders; they watch, practice & are then tested frequently by adults | Inuit |
central to Inuit child-rearing are developing skills for solving problems __ & __ | quickly; spontaneously |
when confront w/problem situation, Inuit children of the Arctic, are expected to observe closely, to reason, & find solutions | independently |
thin loop of leather positioned behind ears of each of 2 competitors who then pull away from each other until one gives up in pain | ear pull game |
Inuit's emphasis on experimental learning means that children are less __ __ or verbally reprimanded | physically restrained |
Inuit children must learn to be cooperative & | emotionally restrained |
Margaret Mead's 1928 book; landmark work that changed how Americans looked at childhood & culture | Coming of Age in Samoa |
theory extremely influential 1920s-1950s | culture & personality |
it is impossible to see things without __ & __ them in some manner | organizing; evaluating |
only through fitting our perceptions & experiences into systems of __ & __ can we comprehend our lives & act in the world | organization; classification |
classify some kinds of termites as food | Bamana children in Mali |
in __ language the same verb, min, is used for smoking & drinking | Bamana |
Lacondon Maya in southern Mexico classify __ as dangerous & frightening, highly inappropriate to point out to someone | rainbows |
system of meaning that transforms physical reality, what is there, into experienced reality | codification of reality |
anthropologist interest in different way people see themselves & their environments | Dorothy Lee 1987 |
holy man of Oglala (Sioux) saw trees as having rights to the land, equal to his own | Black Elk |
anthropologists interested in describing systems of organization/classification used by individual cultures often use a __ __ called ethnoscience | theoretical perspective |
ethnoscience is one position/technique within a broader perspective of __ anthropology | cognitive |
understanding __ __ is extremely important for scholars interested in ethnobotany & ethnomedicine | classification systems |
French anthropologist compared myths & beliefs of different cultures to isolate common patterns | Claude Levi-Strauss |
Levi-Strauss & his followers believe that myths/beliefs reflect tendency to divide everything into __ __ __ of male/female, good/bad, right/left, & a third crossing boundary between | two opposing classes |
Geertz says that a human being is "an animal suspended in __ __ __ which he himself has spun" | webs of significance |
symbols are the __ __ people use to fill their world with meanings | key mechanism |
try to understand a culture by discovering & analyzing the symbols that are most important to its members | symbolic anthropologists |
mudyi tree is central symbol & plays role in girls' puberty rites; | Ndembu of E Africa |
has white, milky sap, which symbolizes breast-feeding, inheritance through mother's family line, & unity/continuity of society itself | mudyi tree |
one of best known interpretive anthropologists said that culture is like a novel | Clifford Geertz |
notes that the vocabulary of football is full of sexual overtones; uniforms accentuate male physique | Dundes |
for __ __ football's meaning derives from the ways in which it explores & comments on critical themes in American culture | interpretive anthropologists |
use methods drawn from the humanities rather than the sciences to uncover & interpret deep emotional & psychological structure of societies | symbolic & interpretive anthropologists |
often sought to find laws of cultural behavior | functionalist anthropologists |
searched for laws of cultural behavior in the mutually supportive relationships among kinship, religion & politics | Radcliffe-Brown & Malinowski |
argues that religion supports social structure by giving individuals a sense of dependence on their society | AR Radcliffe-Brown |
view social institutions & practices as elements in broader ecological systems; concerns w/ways cultural practices both altered & were altered by the ecosystem in which they occur | ecological functionalist anthropologists |
explanation of Hindu taboo on eating beef focuses on effect of cattle in Indian environment rather than on Hindu belief system | Marvin Harris |
Hindu religious taboo of eating beef is part of a larger ecological pattern that includes the | subsistence system |
powerful way of thinking about society & provides important insights; thinking of cultures as organic systems | functionalism |
saw conflict in society as a key factor driving social change | Marx & Weber |
anthropologists who rely on their __ are often referred to as neo-Marxists | insights |
different group have different & often opposing interests, & this creates conflict | socially stratified societies |
they live in worlds filled w/symbols that are of meaning only to themselves | schizophrenics |
two sorts of ideas that members of a culture might share | norms & values |
norms & values are often embedded in rules of behavior that __ & __ culture | reflect; reinforce |
important American anthropologists who noted that not everyone participates equally in culture | Ralph Linton 1936 |
studied Pukapuka in Pacific; fisherman disagree about fish names much of the time | Robert Borofsky |
refers to the idea that the dominant culture is the more powerful in a society | subculture or dominant culture |
retain their power partially through control of institutions like legal system, criminalizing practices that conflict with their own | dominant cultures |
public school help maintain the __ of the dominant cultures in modern society | values |
in modern society the media plays important role in encouraging people to see subcultures in | stereotypical ways |
study focusing on reality shows found that images of race/crime systematically over-represent African Americans as criminals | Oliver |
result of struggles between groups in societies is that norms & values are constantly being | renegotiated |
shared ideas and the sense of the community may be the __ of human interaction rather than its __ | result; cause |
human beings develop & use culture to | adapt to the world |
fact that humans universally learn & use culture strongly suggests that such learning is a manifestation of our | genetic code |
because human adapt through learned behavior, they can change their approach to __ __ | solving problems |
plasticity has allowed human beings to __ under a wide variety of ecological conditions | thrive |
human may inherit a great deal of __ __ that hinders their survival | cultural misinformation |
anthropologists who view culture as an __ tend to be concerned w/people's behavior, particularly as it relates to their physical well-being | adaptation |
since 16th century most important source of culture change has been the development of a __ __ __ based primarily in wealthy nations of Europe & Asia | world economic system |
anthropologists usually discuss cultural change in term of | innovation & diffusion |
often chance discoveries & accidents; genuinely new & different innovations | primary innovations |
Teflon was discovered by __ __ when trying to find new substances for refrigeration | Roy Plunkett |
while working on radar, microwave ranges were invented by | Percy Le Baron Spencer |
while trying to develop drug to treat ulcers, developed NutraSweet | James Schlatter |
all innovations involve human __ & __ which exist in the same quantity in all societies | ingenuity; creativity |
found in Philippines, exotic dancers who exchanged sex for money considered these transactions sex work only in relation to 1st time sexual encounters, so less likely to use condoms, thus protecting them/partners from AIDS | Eric Ratliff |
in southern Africa 55-65% of AIDS victims are | women |
significantly lower rates of AIDS among Ju/'hoansi women is due to their economic autonomy | Richard Lee & Ida Susser |