Shared Flashcard Set

Details

Intro to Anthropology
Introductory terms for Anthropology
55
Anthropology
Undergraduate 1
09/16/2009

Additional Anthropology Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term
Holistic
Definition
A fundamental principle of anthropology: that the various parts of human culture and biology must be viewed in the broadest possible context in order to understand their interconnections and interdependence, think Whole as in
Term
Biological Anthropology
Definition
Also called Physical Anthropology, is the systematic study of humans as biological organisms.
Term
Applied Antrhopology
Definition
This entails using anthropological knowledge and methods to solve practical problems, often for a specific client
Term
Archaeology
Definition
The field of anthropology that studies human cultures through the recovery of analysis of material remains and environmental data
Term
Ethnography
Definition
A detailed description of a particular culture primarily based on fieldwork
Term
Ethnology
Definition
The study and analysis of different cultures from a comparative or historical point of view utilizing ethnographic accounts and developing anthropological theories that help explain why certain important differences or similarities occur among groups
Term
Bronislaw Malinowski
Definition
Polish, He argues that people everywhere share certain biological and psychological needs and that the ultimate function of all cultural institutions is to fulfill those needs
Term
Globalization
Definition
Worldwide interconnectedness, evidenced in global movements of natural resources, trade goods, human labor, finance capital, information, and infectious diseases
Term
Culture
Definition
a society's shared and socially transmitted ideas, values, and perceptions, which are used to make sense of experience and which generate behavior and are reflected in that behavior.
Term
Alfred Kroeber
Definition
Helped categorize the many definitions of Culture
Term
Superorganic
Definition
Herbert Spencer coined the term to focus on social organization
Term
Extrasomatic
Definition
of, relating to, or being something that exists external to and distinct from the individual human being or the human body
Term
Franz Boaz
Definition
made anthropology courses a common part of college and university curricula
Term
Structure
Definition
a fundamental and sometimes intangible notion covering the recognition, observation, nature, and stability of patterns and relationships of entities.
Term
Language
Definition
A system of communication using sounds or gestures that are put together in meaningful ways according to a set of rules
Term
Pidgin
Definition
a language is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common
Term
Creole
Definition
A combination of french and english mainly spoken in Louisiana and the Mississippi delta
Term
dialect
Definition
refers to a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers
Term
Edward Sapir
Definition
He was one of the creators of what is now called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Term
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Definition
The linguistic relativity principle (also known as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis) is the idea that the varying cultural concepts and categories inherent in different languages affect the cognitive classification of the experienced world in such a way that speakers of different languages think and behave differently because of it.
Term
Enculturation
Definition
the process by which a person learns the requirements of the culture by which he or she is surrounded
Term
displacement
Definition
referring to things and events removed in space and time
Term
Science
Definition
any systematic knowledge-base or prescriptive practice that is capable of resulting in a prediction or predictable type of outcome
Term
participant observation
Definition
In ethnography, the technique of learning a peoples culture through social participation and personal observation within the community being studied, as well as interviews and discussion with individual members of the group over an extended period of time
Term
Linguistic Anthropology
Definition
the study of human languages, looking at each language's structure, history, and/or it's relation to social and cultural contexts
Term
emic
Definition
a description of behavior or a belief in terms meaningful (consciously or unconsciously) to the actor; that is, an emic account comes from within the culture
Term
etic
Definition
a description of a behavior or belief by an observer, in terms that can be applied to other cultures
Term
ethnocentrism
Definition
the belief that the ways of one's culture are the only proper ones
Term
forensic anthropology
Definition
applied subfield of physical anthropology that specializes in the identification of human skeletal remains for legal purposes
Term
Noble savage
Definition
expresses a concept of the universal essential humanity as unencumbered by civilization; the normal essence of an unfettered human.
Term
Social Learning
Definition
a theory of education that acquisition of social competence happens exclusively or primarily in a social group
Term
antiquarian
Definition
an aficionado of antiquities or things of the past
Term
adaptation
Definition
is the process whereby an organism becomes better suited to its habitat
Term
E.B. Tylor
Definition
considered representative of cultural evolutionism
Term
Symbol
Definition
a sign, sound, emblem, or other thing that is arbitrarily linked to something else and represents it in a meaningful way
Term
Herbert Spencer
Definition
developed an all-embracing conception of evolution as the progressive development of the physical world, biological organisms, the human mind, and human culture and societies
Term
Social Darwinism
Definition
refers to various ideologies based on a concept that competition among all individuals, groups, nations, or ideas drives social evolution in human societies
Term
Margaret Mead
Definition
a popularizer of the insights of anthropology into modern American and Western culture
Term
Infrastructure
Definition
the economic foundation of a society, including its subsistence practices and the tools and other material equipment used to make a living
Term
Lewis Henry Morgan
Definition
best known for his work on cultural evolution and Native Americans
Term
civilization
Definition
a type of society marked by the presence of cities, social classes, and the state
Term
unilinear evolution
Definition
believed that Western culture is the contemporary pinnacle of social evolution
Term
traditions
Definition
customary ideas and practices passed on from generation to generation which in a modernizing society may form an obstacle to new ways of doing things
Term
particularism
Definition
It argued that each society is a collective representation of its unique historical past
Term
superstructure
Definition
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
Term
kinesics
Definition
a system of notating and analyzing postures, facials expressions, and bodily motions that convey messages
Term
proxemics
Definition
the cross cultural study of humankind's perception and use of space
Term
phoneme
Definition
the smallest unit in sound that makes a difference in meaning in a language
Term
morpheme
Definition
the smallest unit of sound that carries a meaning in language. it is distinct from a phoneme, which can alter meaning but has no meaning by itself
Term
phonetics
Definition
the systematic identification and description of distinctive speech sounds in a language
Term
determinism
Definition
the view that every event, including human cognition, behavior, decision, and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences
Term
homology
Definition
analogy between human beliefs, practices or artifacts owing to genetic or historical connections
Term
codeswitching
Definition
a linguistics term denoting the concurrent use of more than one language, or language variety, in conversation
Term
glottochronology
Definition
an approach in historical linguistics for estimating the time at which languages diverged, based on the assumption that the basic (core) vocabulary of a language changes at a constant average rate
Term
flawed transmission
Definition
Supporting users have an ad free experience!