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1.1 Explain the core concepts that distinguish anthropology from other disciplines. o Anthropology is the study of humanity, from its evolutionary origins millions of years ago to today’s worldwide diversity of peoples and cultures. o Three features distinguish anthropology from other social sciences: a focus on the concept of culture, a holistic perspective, and a comparative perspective. o Culture is the constellation of learned values, beliefs, and rules of conduct that members of a society share. Culture change and globalization are important subjects of anthropological research. o Anthropology’s holistic perspective focuses on culture as an integrated whole, the various features and patterns of which can only be understood in relation to one another. o Anthropology’s comparative perspective is based on cultural data drawn from societies throughout the world and from throughout human history, documenting the diversity of human culture in an attempt to understand common patterns in people’s adaptations to their environments and their unique cultural institutions. 1.2 Describe the four subfields of anthropology. o Cultural anthropology is the comparative study of living and recent cultures. Cultural anthropologists use ethnographic fieldwork and the perspective of cultural relativism. o Linguistic anthropology is the study of language in its cultural and historical context. It includes the study of languages of indigenous peoples, language change, and the relationships between language and other aspects of culture, thought, and belief. o Archaeology is the study of past cultures. Archaeologists study historic cultures with written records and prehistoric cultures whose lives can be inferred from material artifacts, settlement patterns, and remains of foods and tools. o Biological anthropology is the study of human origins, using the fossil record to understand human evolution. Some biological anthropologists study the biological diversity of contemporary human populations. 1.3 Articulate how applied anthropology relates to the four main subfields of anthropology. o Applied anthropology intersects with and draws from all of the major subdisciplines in anthropology to study and help solve contemporary problems in communities, government, and businesses. 2.1 Articulate how anthropologists understand the concept of culture. o Anthropologists use the term culture to refer to all of the customs, attitudes, values, and beliefs of members of a society. People acquire these elements of culture in the context of their interactions with others. As members of families, social groups, and
communities, people learn what kinds of behaviors are considered appropriate and inappropriate. 2.2 Explain the extent to which culture is shared, learned, adaptive, integrated, and symbolic. o Several characteristics of culture are fundamental to the way all societies function. Culture consists of behaviors and beliefs that are “shared” by members of the group. If this were not the case, people could not achieve common goals. However, social status, age, gender, race, and ethnicity may create differences in how people’s lives are organized and in the attitudes and values they hold. o Culture is learned. That is, people’s behavior is the result of learning, and not instinct. Even when human beings must fulfill critical physical and survival needs, their cultures influence how they satisfy those needs. Many of our attitudes and actions seem natural because our enculturation is so strong. o Culture is adaptive. That is, people adapt to their environments through cultural means. Human beings can survive in nearly any climate and environment because of the inventions and cultural practices that they develop. However, some practices may become maladaptive over time or not be adaptive in a different context. o Culture is integrated, forming a relatively coherent and consistent system. Change in one aspect of culture usually leads to changes in other aspects. When cultural traits are borrowed from other peoples, they usually are altered and adapted to fit more closely with the borrower ’s norms and expectations. o Culture is symbolic. People’s behavior and understandings of the world are based on meanings expressed through symbols. Language is the most obvious and powerful symbolic system, but human beings also use objects and rituals to represent deeply held cultural ideas and attitudes. o Culture organizes how people think about the world. Through learning and interacting with others, members of a society absorb an array of underlying, taken for granted assumptions that help to integrate their activities and beliefs. These concepts become naturalized, so they feel innate and commonsensical rather than acquired. Because not all people accept the dominant cultural models of their society, these underlying assumptions can be the source of contention, which may, in turn, lead to change. 2.3 Illustrate the internal and external processes that produce culture change. o Cultures are dynamic systems that change because of internal and external forces. Internal change may take place over time through invention and innovation, leading to new adaptive strategies, customs, technologies, and ideas. Culture history describes the selective record of change in a society, but cultures do not evolve in the same way as species. People define themselves through a process of ethnogenesis. Broad culture changes, such as modernization or revolution, are internal changes that usually are strongly influenced by external forces. o Culture change also occurs through culture contact. People may borrow traits from other groups. In the process of syncretism, items borrowed through diffusion are modified to fit the existing culture. Culture changes also may be imposed on a society
by another society through invasion and conquest. Colonized people are forced to adopt practices and beliefs consistent with those of their rulers. o When a cultural group is in close contact with a dominant culture, the people may become assimilated or acculturated. Cultural pluralism describes a society with diverse cultural groups who retain their distinctiveness but live side by side on more or less equal terms. In contrast, conquered and oppressed peoples may undergo reactive adaptation to cope with deprivation and loss. 2.4 Describe the cultural consequences of globalization. o A global culture, characterized by consumer spending and fueled by advertising by multinational corporations, is spreading to all parts of the world. Although globalization has helped to unify different peoples in a global economy, it may also lead to a loss of cultural and linguistic diversity. 4.1 Articulate the three key features that distinguish human language from animal communication. All languages are based on arbitrary symbols for relationships between the sounds of a word and the object, activity, quality, or idea that the word is used to name. Languages are characterized by displacement-that is, the ability to talk about events of the past and the future, not just events that are ongoing at the moment of speech. Languages are productive, in that sounds, words, and sentence constructions can be joined in infinite novel combinations. 4.2 Explain the principles of phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. Talk is achieved through the interdependent components of sounds, words, sentences, and meanings. Although every language is unique, there are some universals, including the human range of phonetic inventories, recurring types of morphological and syntactic constructions, and underlying semantic relationships. 4.3 Describe the role of nonverbal behavior in human communication. Nonverbal communication also consists of both unique and common behaviors. Although some actions may occur in many societies, they are always given culturally specific interpretations. 4.4 Illustrate the social and cultural dimensions of languages Linguistic anthropologists investigate associations between language and cultural meaning. African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is a variety of speech employed by some people of African ancestry in the United States that diverges from Standard English, although it shares most linguistic rules with it. Controversies over AAVE focus primarily on proposals to incorporate vernacular speech in schools.
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The United States is a complex, multilingual nation with millions of speakers of languages other than English. 4.5 Demonstrate how cultural meaning is conveyed through verbal and nonverbal forms of communication . An "ethnography of communication" attempts to uncover all of the rules that connect language to social behavior. Components of any speech interaction include the participants, the code used, the physical and social settings, the topic of conversation, and the goals of the speakers. 4.6 Describe how languages change. All languages constantly change. Change derives from internal linguistic processes and from contact with other languages. New sounds may be introduced and/or grammatical constructions may be altered. All languages also borrow words from foreign sources. When varieties of the same language become so different that people speaking different dialects can no longer understand one another, new languages come into being. A language family consists of languages that are related historically and are the common descendants of an ancestral code. 4.7 Summarize the impact of globalization on language use. One of the effects of globalization has been the decline in the number of languages spoken throughout the world. It is estimated that only about one-half of approximately 6,000 to 7,000 languages spoken today will still be used by the end of the twenty-first century. Today, more than ever, communication worldwide takes place through the Internet rather than through face-to-face interactions. Although the number of Internet users grows rapidly, there are inequalities in access to computers based on world region and factors such as class, gender, and race or ethnic identities. 6.1 Summarize the forms of European colonialism in terms of their political, economic, and religious goals and policies. o Conquest and colonialism have occurred in many parts of the world as state societies expanded their borders or spheres of influence. In the process, conquerors and colonizers changed the cultures of indigenous peoples. Europeans established colonies, that is, settlements of foreign nationals with controlling interests in indigenous territories, on every continent. These colonies were tied to the home country both politically and economically. The home country governed how colonial subjects behaved and extracted resources. o There were three major types of colonies: exploitation colonies (resulting from military conquests in which the colonial power exploits economic resources), maritime enclaves (resulting from sea trade and coastal exploration to control trade at foreign
ports and territories), and settlement colonies (resulting from military invasion supporting permanent colonial settlement). 6.2 Describe the political, social, and economic ramifications of the European slave trade. o The slave trade took West Africans to work on plantations in the Caribbean, South America, and the United States. About 10 million people were taken from Africa by the time the slave trade ended in the nineteenth century. o The wealth the slaves in the Americas produced enriched their owners and contributed to the accumulation of capital and resources that led to the Industrial Revolution. o Many African societies had systems of slavery or coerced labor. o Conditions of slavery in the Americas were likely worse than those in traditional African societies. European colonists typically saw African slaves as racially inferior. They were the property of the masters, who could treat them any way they decided. o The slave trade changed West African societies. Some African elites were able to centralize their wealth and power, but other African societies fell apart because rival factions competed for war captives who could be sold as slaves. 6.3 Illustrate the effects of European trade and expansion on indigenous populations and cultural practices. o In North America, settler colonies relegated indigenous peoples to small portions of their ancestral homelands or to unknown lands. o European and American settlers benefited from the spread of epidemic diseases such as measles and smallpox. The destruction of resources and military intervention persuaded native leaders to cede most of their land to the U.S. government. o European powers focused their economic interests in North America on the fur trade. Most native communities participated in the fur trade to procure European manufactured goods. o Native people could not control the market for furs, which made them vulnerable to changes in demand. They overtrapped their territories and then competed with other indigenous groups. As settlers pushed west, indigenous peoples fled, increasing competition and warfare. 6.4 Explain how Spanish economic interests and policies affected indigenous communities. o Spanish colonization in the Americas was focused on exploiting resources, especially precious metals, and on establishing plantations that would produce marketable crops, principally sugarcane, in the Caribbean and South America.
o At first, indigenous inhabitants of the regions were compelled to work in mines and on plantations, but African slaves replaced them due to depopulation in some regions. Landholding patterns included encomiendas, haciendas, and mission villages. o The Spanish intermarried with indigenous peoples, creating a social class of mixed ancestry. This group functioned as intermediaries and as an elite class. 6.5 Demonstrate how colonial religious, educational, legal, and economic systems transformed indigenous cultures. o Throughout the world, colonial authorities have pressed indigenous peoples to change their cultural practices to be more consistent with European values and behaviors. Missionaries aided in this process by attempting to convert indigenous peoples to Christianity. Schoolteachers inculcated European values and norms. Native children in boarding schools lost touch with their traditional ways, religious beliefs, and languages. o Colonial administrators imposed Eurocentric patterns of law and social control, disturbing traditional social relationships and ethical values. The introduction of cash economies based on market principles changed economic relationships. 6.6 Analyze the ethnocentric attitudes that rationalized colonial policies. o Europeans believed that they could take land they conquered simply by their self- declared “right of discovery.” Lack of proof of ownership was also a rationale for ignoring indigenous claims to land and resources. Nationalism and imperialism helped to justify colonialism. o European colonizers claimed a “white man’s burden” of cultural, moral, and racial superiority. Europeans believed that they had a “sacred trust” to pacify and civilize the natives. 6.7 Compare the perspectives of different indigenous groups toward European colonizers. o Some indigenous peoples were awed by European technology and manufactures or believed that Europeans were gods. o Indigenous communities differed in their attitudes toward Europeans. Many were eager trading partners. Once people realized Europeans wanted to control their lands and lives, however, disagreements often arose. 6.8 Describe the lasting influence of European colonialism on today’s political, economic, environmental, and cultural landscapes. o Since the 1940s, much of the world has been freed from direct colonial control. Competition for power and authority among tribes or elites has led to violence. Indigenous peoples often remain marginalized in the newly established nations. Nationalism is hard to achieve in culturally diverse societies.
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o Indigenous foragers and nomadic pastoralists have been encouraged or compelled to settle permanently in one area and farm or work for wages. Efforts to spread a national language have lessened cultural diversity. 7.1 Summarize the focus of economic anthropology in terms of subsistence strategies and economic systems. o Economic anthropology focuses on subsistence strate-gies and economic systems— how people meet their survival needs and make their living. 7.2 Explain how foraging and food production are connected to environmental, demographic, and other socioeconomic factors. o Subsistence strategies include methods that people use to obtain food. People need to develop techniques to adapt to their environment, exploit available resources, or produce their own food. Subsistence strategies affect and are affected by environmental conditions, such as topography, climate, and available plants and animals. The techniques that people use have an impact on population size, settlement patterns, and household composition. 7.3 Compare the subsistence strategies, social features, and cultural principles of foraging societies. o Foraging is a subsistence strategy that depends directly on plants and animals available in the environment. Foragers collect wild plants, fruits, nuts, and seeds and hunt animals and fish. Foragers require a large territory for subsistence. Most foragers are nomadic and live in relatively small communities so as not to overburden their environment. 7.4 Illustrate the economic, social, and cultural characteristics of pastoralist societies. o Pastoralism is a subsistence strategy that centers on the herding and care of large numbers of domesticated animals. Some pastoralists are nomadic, moving frequently as they take their animals to new pasturelands. Others retain a home base and make daily excursions to graze their animals. Most pastoralists live in communities of no more than several hundred people. In most pastoralist societies, individuals own animals, although the animals may be cared for in a collective herd. 7.5 Describe the subsistence techniques and division of labor found among horticultural societies. o Horticulture is a subsistence strategy based on growing crops. Horticulture is small- scale farming, using handheld tools and relatively simple technology. Farmers need to remain near their fields during the planting season. Some horticulturalists live in permanent villages, whereas others shift their locations in different seasons. Their settlements usually number from several hundred to several thousand people.
Horticulturalists generally produce enough surplus to last a year or two beyond their minimum requirements. 7.6 Relate the development of agriculture to changes in settlement patterns, health, social organization, and crop selection. o Agriculture is a form of food production based on permanent settlement; large-scale farming using complex technology; and the storage, distribution, and trade of large surpluses. Agriculture arose independently in different parts of the world based on different kinds of domesticated plants and animals. Increases in population and food supply were offset by problems of poor nutrition and the spread of disease in urban centers that grew up around centers of agriculture. 7.7 Articulate the effect of economic and environmental change on subsistence patterns. o Subsistence strategies change in response to environmental changes, population migration, and cultural contact between peoples. 8.1 Describe how resource allocation, labor organization, exchange, and consumption form integrated economic systems. Economic systems include strategies for allocating land, resources, and labor. People everywhere need to produce, distribute, and consume foods and other goods. They obtain their resources from their land through various modes of production. Different cultures allocate land and resources in different ways Societies need to allocate the labor of their members to productive tasks. Work roles are often assigned to people on the basis of age and gender. How gender affects work roles varies in different cultures. Economic exchanges occur among family members, friends, traders, and other members of communities. Exchanges between family members or other familiars are usually of the type called generalized reciprocity, where no immediate return is expected, whereas exchanges between other members of communities are called balanced reciprocity, where there is usually a mutual exchange of goods. Exchanges between strangers, especially in the marketplace, are characterized by negative reciprocity, where all parties try to receive more value than they give. Systems of exchange also include redistributive networks, barter, trade, and market transactions. 8.2 Explain the core principles of market economies and the development of capitalism. Market economies are based on the buying and selling of commodities of fixed value, depending on supply and demand and using standardized mediums of exchange. Capitalist economic production is based on the desire by owners of the means of production to increase their profit. In capitalist production, workers must sell their labor for a wage to owners of institutions that produce goods and services. Workers produce “surplus value”: The value of the goods they produce by their labor is greater than the wage paid to them. This surplus value becomes profit for the owners. Capitalist economic systems are geared
toward an ever-increasing rate of profit. Unlike traditional indigenous subsistence economies, capitalist production is inherently unstable. 8.3 Summarize the impact of colonialism and industrialization on labor patterns, food production, environmental conditions, and social structure. In the fifteenth century, European powers began a process of economic and colonial expansion aimed at expropriating resources and labor from indigenous lands and peoples. In this process of globalization, which was not confined to Europeans, resources and trade items were incorporated into a worldwide economic system that led to the growth and concentration of wealth in Europe. This wealth and desire for even greater profits motivated the development of industrialization. In complex agrarian and industrial societies, systems of distribution have developed to circulate foods and other goods from direct producers to those who do not produce food. Members of elite classes in particular benefit from the distribution of goods. Some segments of society are not able to control at least some of the products of their labor. Postindustrial societies increasingly rely on consumerism and the provision of information and services to the global economy rather than on goods. 8.4 Analyze the positive and negative aspects of different subsistence patterns. In most foraging societies, all members of the community generally have access to land and resources. In pastoral societies, individuals or families control or own land and especially animals. In horticultural and agricultural societies, individuals or family groups own land. Intensive farming increases the need to retain permanent and individual control of land. In foraging, pastoral, and horticultural societies, most people, given characteristics of gender and age, perform similar subsistence work. However, in complex agricultural and industrial societies, economic life is characterized by labor specialization. In the past century, the percentage of people engaged in producing food has declined everywhere. 9.1 Summarize the importance of kinship systems in organizing human relationships. In every society, people have systems for tracing descent and organizing kinship groups to which they belong. In many cultures, people consider themselves related to both their mother’s and their father’s families. In such systems of bilateral descent, the most significant kin group is that of the kindred, a loosely defined network of relatives who interact on a regular basis and acknowledge mutual rights and obligations. Systems of bilateral descent are commonly found in foraging societies and in modern industrial nations. Bilateral descent is adaptive in societies where mobility is a premium. In small-scale foraging societies, people can make claims in a wide network of kin in times of scarcity and need, whereas people in modern industrial countries can loosen their kin ties to promote their economic independence. 9.2 Compare unilineal descent systems in terms of their structures and functions.
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In unilineal descent, people acknowledge relationships on either only their mother’s (matrilineal) or their father’s (patrilineal) side. Unilineal descent is common in farming and pastoral societies. About 15 percent of unilineal groups are matrilineal; the remainder are patrilineal. A few societies have (or had) systems of double descent, in which people could belong to kinship groups of both their mother and father. In systems of parallel descent, men were considered descended from their fathers and women from their mothers. Finally, systems of ambilineal descent allow people to affiliate with either their mother’s or their father’s kin group. 9.3 Illustrate how societies organize marriages, economic resources, and political positions through descent groups. Unilineal descent systems usually organize people into structured groupings of related people. The smallest such unit is a lineage, a specific set of relatives that trace descent from a common ancestor. A matrilineage consists of a female ancestor, her children, her daughters’ children, her daughters’ daughters’ children, and so on. A patrilineage consists of a male ancestor, his children, his sons’ children, his sons’ sons’ children, and so on. Many cultures with unilineal descent organize their members into clans, named groups of people whobelieve they are relatives but cannot trace their actual relationship with all members of their clan. Whereas members of lineages can prove their common descent from a specific ancestor, members of clans stipulate or claim relationship. Clans also often forbid marital or sexual unions between their own members. Clans also often have corporate functions such as holding land in common and apportioning fields or resource sites to their members. They may choose leaders who speak for their group and have methods of making decisions and settling disputes. Phratries are groupings of linked clans that serve primarily to regulate marriage by forbidding unions between members. Moieties are even larger groupings, dividing the society as a whole into two groups or halves. Typically, people cannot marry members of their own moiety. Moieties are usually named groups that may have corporate and ceremonial functions and control land, resource sites, and other property. 9.4 Describe the behaviors associated with avoidance and joking relationships. Kinship groups sometimes have preferences for the kind of marriage that their members may make. Clans are often exogamous, with their members marrying people of other groups. Endogamy, in contrast, is a preference for marriage with a member of one’s own group. In some societies, there are preferences for marrying particular types of cousins, either cross-cousins or parallel cousins. Marriage patterns tend to be consistent with other rules that organize social groups. Members of every society share ideas about what is deemed appropriate between any set of relatives. Some societies highly structure behaviors between certain relatives. At one end of the behavioral spectrum, some people are in a “joking” relationship, allowing them to tease one another and make critical or sexual remarks, whereas at the other end, people may be in an “avoidance” relationship, barring them from teasing or criticizing but
instead encouraging them to be “bashful,” avoiding eye contact, and refraining from speaking directly to or even being alone with a dominant person. 9.5 Explain how environmental, subsistence, and settlement changes influence kinship systems. Kinship changes as a result of changes in people’s economic systems. Globalization also causes people to change how they reckon their descent and their rules for inheritance and kin relations. 9.6 Articulate the principles of each of the kinship terminology systems identified by anthropologists. Kinship terminologies are words that people use to refer to and address their relatives. Worldwide, there are a small number of such sets of terminologies. Kinship terms are labels that symbolize relationships, including the rights and obligations that relatives have in relation to one another. The kinds of systems used reveal the kinds of distinctions that people make about which relatives are similar in status and relationship. 10.1 Summarize the concepts of family, household, and marriage. Families serve economic and social functions. Members of families usually reside together and provide for biological reproduction and the training and enculturation of children. Families provide people with companionship, emotional support, and assistance, and are the basic unit of economic cooperation and interdependence. Families, particularly households, work together to complete the daily tasks necessary for survival. They are also decision-making groups. In many societies, families perform religious functions and rituals that celebrate significant events in members’ lives. Marriage is the most common way in which families are formed. Marriage is a socially recognized, enduring, stable bond between people who each have certain rights and obligations with respect to one another. Husbands and wives can expect to have an exclusive sexual relationship and assist one another in raising children and in provisioning their household. Through the marriage bond, men are able to claim “social fatherhood” by establishing themselves as the husband of the mother 10.2 Explain how family composition relates to subsistence pattern and descent. Although the family is a universal cultural construct, the types of families found in different kinds of societies vary. Nuclear families consist of parents and their children, whereas extended families usually contain at least three generations. Nuclear families are often found in industrial societies, which stress economic independence, and in many foraging societies, because they are adaptive to survival when resources are scarce. Extended families are more common in farming and pastoral societies. They have the advantage of perpetuating the social unit, sharing resources and work, and providing emotional support and material aid.
Family types are responsive to changes in productive modes and general social values. In many countries, the idealized model of husband, wife, and children has declined, as has the number of children per household. 10.3 Illustrate the way societies determine and reinforce categories of acceptable marriage partners. The incest taboo universally forbids marriage between parents and their children and between siblings. In some societies, it also forbids marriage between other relatives. Theories about the origin of the incest taboo include an instinctual revulsion and aversion toward sexual relations within the nuclear family, the biological consequences of inbreeding, a reduction in the fitness of a population through genetic homogeneity, a response to the need to diminish sexual competition within the nuclear family unit, and a means of forcing people to make alliances with others. 10.4 Analyze how marriage forms are connected to economic needs, social status, and population sex ratios. Different societies allow people to have different numbers of spouses at any one time. Marriage between two people is called monogamy; marriage between more than two people is called polygamy. Polygyny is the marriage between one man and two or more women. Polyandry is the marriage between one woman and two or more men. 10.5 Describe the forms of exchange embedded in marriage practices cross-culturally. Marriage often involves an economic exchange. Bride wealth is a gift a husband or his family gives to the family of his intended wife. Similarly, groom-wealth is given by a wife or her family to the family of her intended husband. Brideservice or groom-service requires the husband or wife to perform some services for the parents of his or her spouse. Dowry is the economic goods or wealth the bride’s family gives to the new couple or to the husband’s kin. 10.6 Demonstrate how social status is transformed through the courtship process and wedding ceremony. Marriages may be arranged by parents or by the couple themselves through courtship. The marriage ceremony publicly sanctions the marriage and symbolizes the rights and duties of couples to each other and to their families. 10.7 Articulate the relationship of postmarital residence patterns to economic strategies, kinship systems, and warfare. In some societies, a married couple resides with or near the husband’s relatives (patrilocal residence). In others, they reside with or near the wife’s kin (matrilocal residence). In bilocal residence, married couples live alternately with the husband’s and the wife’s families. In societies with matrilineal descent and inheritance, a couple may live with the husband’s mother’s brother (avunculocal residence). In neolocal residence, couples establish a new household, separate from either group of kin.
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10.8 Describe the cultural responses elicited by the dissolution of a marriage. Marriage preference patterns called levirate and sororate emphasize marriage as an alliance between families. In the levirate, a deceased husband’s brother (usually younger) marries the surviving widow; in the sororate, a younger sister of the deceased wife marries the surviving widower. 11.1 Differentiate the cultural construction and experience of gender from biological sex and sexuality. Gender is a cultural construct that assigns an identity and appropriate roles to people based partly on sexual differences and partly on cultural beliefs about sex and behaviour. Gender models make use of sexual differences between males and females, but cultures vary in the roles that women and men perform, the rights they have in relation to each other, and the values associated with their activities. People learn their gender identity from their earliest socialization in infancy through their childhood, learning appropriate behaviour and molding personality to conform to cultural norms. Females and males are born, but women and men are products of their culture. Most cultures organize their concepts of gender into a dual division of men and women. However, some cultures allow males and females to identify as a third gender with different roles and behaviours. Our culture shapes our sexual feelings and practices and teaches us what is “normal” and what is “deviant.” We learn who are appropriate sexual partners, and when, where, and how it is appropriate to have sexual relations. Attitudes about the relationship between sex and marriage and about homosexuality also reflect cultural learning. Some societies view homosexuality as unnatural, sinful, or criminal; others regard it as an expression of human desire. 11.2 Illustrate how a society’s division of labor, allocation of power, and assignment of status are connected to gender. In all societies, gender influences work. Women’s work always includes caring for young children and performing household tasks. Men’s work always includes hunting and warfare. Men, women, or both may perform other economic activities, such as farming. Like other elements of culture, gender roles change as economic and material factors change. Gender equality is likely in foraging societies where all individuals contribute to subsistence and where hierarchical leadership and control are minimal. In other societies, male dominance may be reflected in men’s control over access to resources, economic production and distribution, decision-making and leadership, and ritual activity. The most intense male dominance tends to occur in agricultural states. However, in male-dominated societies, women may have independence and power in some spheres of life. Some anthropologists suggest that some form of male dominance exists in all societies. Others point to societies in which women and men have or had equal rights and privileges. Rapid culture change brought about by European colonization enhanced men’s status and power.
11.3 Explain how gender roles and the relative status of men and women vary by subsistence pattern. Egalitarian relationships develop among foragers and in industrial and postindustrial societies. In the United States, women were central to the industrializing economy. Many women entered the workforce outside the home during World Wars I and II. Although there is a “gender gap” in pay between men and women, more than half of women with children of all ages were in the workforce by 1996. 11.4 Analyze how economic, political, and ideological changes have affected gender roles and relations around the world. Globalization has affected men and women differently. Women often lose their central roles as subsistence farmers when land is taken out of household production and dedicated to growing crops for national and global trade. Multinational corporations build light manufacturing plants that employ young, unmarried women at low pay. Most socialist and former socialist societies have promoted women’s participation in production and equal rights. However, working women remain burdened by a “double day,” combining paid employment with household responsibilities. Women’s unemployment has been disproportionately high in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union as socialist economies have changed to a free market system. In most countries, women constitute only a small fraction of elected officials or appointed administrators with decision-making powers. Despite the significant contributions of women to US economic development and to their families, ideological pressures continue to undermine gender equality. Some people promote the nineteenth-century “cult of domesticity,” claiming that men and women are suited for different roles because of their biological needs, psychological orientations, and social wants. Men are supposedly inherently aggressive and assertive, whereas women are innately nurturing and passive. However, many other people support the goal of gender equality. 12.1 Explain how wealth, power, and prestige are distributed in egalitarian, ranked, and stratified societies. o Societies differ in respect to people’s access to resources, livelihood, respect, and prestige. In egalitarian societies, all individuals have equal access to resources and equal likelihood of achieving respect and prestige. Although people’s different skills and talents are rewarded, no one is denied opportunities for achievement. Foraging societies and some horticultural societies are likely to be egalitarian. o In social systems based on rank, individuals and kinship groups occupy different positions in the social hierarchy. Each position is ranked in relation to all others. High
rank confers advantages. In some ranked systems, high-ranking individuals are freed from subsistence activities and are supported by the productive work of others. High- ranking individuals are awarded prestige and influence and wield political influence as leaders of kinship groups and territorial units. Despite the privileges of rank, no one is denied a basically decent standard of living. In fact, high-ranking people have the responsibility of distributing goods to members of their kin groups. o In stratified societies, people are differentiated on the basis of attributes they have at birth. These differences allow some people to have greater access to resources, wealth, and positions of prestige, influence, and power than other people. Granting privileges and opportunities to some people effectively denies them to others. Many traditional agrarian societies and all modern industrial states are highly stratified. Unlike systems rank, some people in stratified societies may go hungry and be poorly clothed and housed. The gap in the standard of living between rich and poor may be wide. 12.2 Differentiate systems of social stratification that are based on ascribed status from those based on achieved status. o A caste is a closed social group whose membership is hereditary; that is, people are born into a particular caste and remain in it for life. Caste membership is an ascribed status. The various castes are ordered hierarchically from highest to lowest in a fixed order. Mobility is impossible. Members of higher castes have rights and privileges denied to members of lower castes. They have better standards of living and greater opportunities for achievement, and are more likely to occupy positions of influence and power. o Some stratified systems are organized into classes rather than castes. Class systems are, at least theoretically, based on achievement, including education, occupation, and income. However, in practice, people whose parents are wealthier and are in higher classes have greater access to education and thus to higher incomes and occupations. In addition, although mobility is theoretically a characteristic of class systems, most people remain more or less constant in their social position. o Downward mobility is as likely as upward mobility. 12.3 Compare social categories of race and processes of ethnic identification cross- culturally. o Race is a social construct, focusing on a particular set of external physical traits but having no biological basis as separate, discrete categories. Physical traits that are used to demarcate the races, including skin color, hair color and texture, and facial features, appear in human populations on a continuum, not as consistent markers of groups. But race, once identified on the basis of physical characteristics, becomes projected onto social and personal behavior. The races are then ranked hierarchically. The dominant social group ascribes negative qualities to groups it considers inferior. o Ethnicity is a feature of cultural identification. Cultural traits that often define group membership include language, residence, food, dress, and body ornamentation. Ethnicity is an ascribed status in that people are born into a cultural group. It is also an achieved status because people can choose either to identify with their ethnic group of origin or assimilate into the mainstream society.
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12.4 Describe how social ideologies translate into differential access to resources, rights, and opportunities in the United States. o In the United States, an ideology coalescing around the American Dream obscures the actual facts of the structure of class and class privilege. Although elites who control government policies act in the interests of their class, barriers hinder class consciousness among disadvantaged groups. People blame themselves for their disadvantages instead of recognizing that a hierarchical system imposes a position on them. People also feel that their low position in the socioeconomic system is temporary, amenable to change if they try harder to achieve. Other barriers that divide people include racial, ethnic, and gender differences. 13.1 Summarize how political anthropologists understand a society’s approach to decision- making, leadership, and conflict resolution. Political anthropology focuses on how societies select their leaders, make decisions affecting the group, provide community functions and services, and resolve conflicts. These cultural mechanisms help integrate a community and direct relations with other communities. 13.2 Illustrate how power and authority are allocated and used in small-scale societies. Bands are small, loosely organized groups of people.Communities in band societies are usually relatively small and dispersed throughout a wide territory. Bands are held together by informal means. Membership in a band is typically based on kinship ties. Band leadership is based on the abilities of the leader. Such leaders have influence but cannot control the actions of others. Bands are usually egalitarian societies. Tribal societies are more structured, organized, and cohesive than bands. Tribal societies may have more formalized procedures for making decisions and selecting leaders with limited power to enforce their decisions. Voluntary associations and age-grade or age-set organizationsare common in tribal societies. Members of the same age grade consider themselves to have a kin-like relationship. Some tribal societies link themselves in confederacies. A confederacy is a formal, well- organized political structure formed to counteract external threats. Confederacies have formal procedures to select leaders, debate issues, make decisions, and plan and execute actions. Chiefdoms are stratified societies organized by kinship. Within chiefdoms, the chiefs and their families have the most prestige, authority, and privileges, but not power. Their position and influence depend on voluntary compliance of their kin groups and communities. In chiefdoms, there is no paramount leader. Chiefs owe primary allegiance to their kin groups. Although chiefly rank may be inherited, aspirants need skills and personality traits to be appropriate heirs. Chiefs are often the centers of redistributive networks. They redistribute by hosting feasts. 13.3 Describe the origins and features of states, including aspects of centralization, social control, and warfare.
State societies are the largest, most complex, and most centralized political systems. In every part of the world, states have replaced other types of societies. State governments are hierarchical. State government systems include procedures for formally selecting leaders and their assistants. States usually divide their territory into districts and have economic systems characterized by labor specialization. States are stratified societies in which some people have greater access to property and resources than others. State societies promulgate ideologies that legitimate the status and privileges that elites receive. States also have mechanisms of force to maintain the status quo. States have law codes and monopolize the right to control and punish wrongdoers and conduct warfare. 13.4 Explain the way physical and ideological conflicts engender political transformation in state societies. States are inherently expansionist because their elites want to increase their wealth and power. State conquest always has cultural components as basic systems of family organization, economic relationships, and religion change to conform to the practices and beliefs of the conquerors. States may also be transformed from within as interest groups or factions compete. Reform or revolutionary movements may develop in response to perceived inequalities and injustices or to effect more fundamental changes. Although states resist revolutions, some revolutionary movements like the wave of post–World War II decolonization have proven to be unstoppable. Global movements toward democratization have also more recently gained momentum. 15.1 Summarize the anthropological approach to understanding a society’s supernatural beliefs and religious practices. Religion is actions and feelings based on beliefs in spirit beings and supranormal (or superhuman) forces. Religious beliefs and practices give people ways to contact spirit beings and forces, show them honor and respect, and invoke their protection. Anthropologists use comparison and cultural relativism to analyze religious beliefs and behaviors. They try to understand people’s ideas about the spirit realm from the people’s own point of view. They also focus on how religious beliefs and practices are consistent with other aspects of culture. 15.2 Compare theories regarding the purpose of religion and its connection to other aspects of culture. Specific origins of religious beliefs are unknown. Religions give people solace, and religious beliefs and practices bind communities together. They give ideological support for social structures, including family organization, social stratification, and political inequalities. Anthropologists using cultural materialist or ecological perspectives analyze religious practices as a means of adapting to one’s environment. Social, economic, political, and historical developments affect religions. Changes may cause people to think about their relationship with the spirit world in different ways, altering practices or even abandoning them altogether. Religions incorporate new ideas from external sources or the innovations of believers.
15.3 Illustrate the types of supernatural entities that are recognized cross-culturally. Spirit entities and forces have extraordinary powers. They are typically eternal or indestructible. They know more than a person can know and can act in ways that humans cannot. Thus, people seek to gain their protection and aid. One nearly universal form that a spirit takes is the soul—the eternal aspect of living things. In some beliefs, only humans have souls. Souls are seen as the animating aspect of living things. When the bodies die, souls escape and exist eternally in another form. The belief in souls is called animism; the belief that all things are endowed with some spirit essence is animatism. Some religious traditions have many spirit beings in human form with specific attributes, powers, and functions. Polytheism, belief in numerous deities, is widespread. In monotheistic religions, people believe in one supreme deity who affects all aspects of life, although there may also be lesser spirits and moral heroes. Mana is a spirit power or essence that endows people, animals, objects, or events with special qualities or powers. In some cultures of Australia and North America, people believe that they are descended from human or animal spirit beings called totems, the primordial protectors of the people. Spirit beings and forces are dangerous if contacted in the wrong way, in the wrong place, or at the wrong time. Restrictions on places or objects are called taboos. A taboo object or place can cause harm because the spirit power within it can become dangerous. 15.4 Differentiate the roles of full- and part-time religious specialists found in various societies. Most religions have individuals or groups who function as either part-time or full-time religious specialists. In some cases, a person receives a calling from the spirit world to become a religious specialist or inherits spiritual powers. In other cases, a person decides to become a religious practitioner for personal reasons. Mediums make contact with spirit beings or spirits of the dead. Diviners have the power to predict or shape the future through messages and omens they receive and interpret from the spirit world. Healers diagnose the spirit cause of illness and effect cures through rituals. Shamans receive visions and messages from the spirit realm and may serve as diviners and healers. Priests are full-time religious practitioners who lead religious organizations and officiate at rituals but are not expected to be able to communicate directly with the spirit world. 15.5 Describe the form and function of rituals, ceremonies, and magic from a cross-cultural perspective. Rituals are a fundamental aspect of all religious practices and include prayer and offerings. Rituals mark events in religious and secular calendars. People also perform rituals to celebrate transitions in an individual’s life cycle. Such rites of passage mark birth, puberty, marriage, and death. Rites of passage ritualize three aspects of a change in life status: separation, transition, and reincorporation. Puberty rites mark sexual maturity and the transition from childhood to adulthood. Funerals mark the departure of the deceased and reinforce family and community solidarity.
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Health is often thought of as a state of harmony or balance among a person’s body, relations with others, the health of the environment, and relations with spirit beings and forces. When this balance is disturbed, illness and misfortune may follow. Serious illness is often attributed to spiritual causes needing ritual diagnosis and treatment by religious specialists. Spirit causes can include soul loss, object intrusion, spirit possession, or the violation of taboos. Curative rituals attempt to restore balance through magic, practical remedies, therapeutic effects, social validation, and the passage of time. Witchcraft may be suspected in cases of illness, death, or misfortune. Witches or sorcerers employ spirit powers to harm others. Witchcraft can be a form of social control and a means of achieving social justice. Witches, like healers, employ imitative and contagious magic. Magic is an expression of people’s desires and intentions in situations over which they have no direct control. 15.6 Analyze religious developments as responses to social, economic, and political circumstances. Revitalization movements are religion-based responses to societal crises. Revitalization movements are aimed at restructuring power relationships within a society or between conquered peoples and their rulers. They are begun by individuals who receive direct messages from the spirit world telling them to convey divine teachings. Nativism is aimed at ridding society of foreign elements, returning to what is thought to be a state of cultural purity. Revivalism stresses the importance of reviving cultural and political practices. Millenarian movements incorporate apocalyptic themes and an abrupt end to the present world and establishment of a new world. Messianic movements stress the role of a prophet or messiah as a savior. The major world religions have changed many times. As times change and social norms are transformed, religions alter their practices and beliefs. These changes can lead to the development of distinctive sects and denominations within the world religions. State societies have spread their religious beliefs through proselytism. Revitalization movements within Christianity and Islam have increased religious fundamentalism. Christian fundamentalists advocate a literal interpretation of the Bible and tend to support a conservative political agenda and to place religious authority above secular authority. Islamic fundamentalism includes terrorism and rejection of Western influences.