Anthro Study Guide

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School

Valencia College *

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Course

2930

Subject

Anthropology

Date

Oct 30, 2023

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pdf

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Uploaded by MinisterProton6605

Anthropology Test Study Guide Four Fields of Anthropology - Archaeology Study of our past through material Overlaps with bio or physical Anthropology - Biological or Physical Anthropology Study of people as “critters” or “animals” and focuses on biological makeup (ex: Hereditary) Primatology - focuses and studies the human behavior of closest relatives to learn something - Linguistics Study of Language and how language is related to how we are developed from another Language provides a window into how a given group of people categorize relatively or view the world Social Linguistics → Study of the relation between language and context → Study the relationship between language and culture - Cultural or Social Anthropology Studies physical characteristics and culture as a society Sociology → study of western societies Cultural → study of nonwestern societies Hallmark of cultural anthropology is field research and participation in observation 2 Sub fields - Applied Anthropology - Simply anthropology put to use including nutrition, health and healing of group Forensic Anthropology - Outgrow from biological anthropology - Study involving biological makeup and behavior Why Use Concept of Culture Allows us to explain human variations without resort to biology (to aspects innate to us) - Culture is whole → (As Murphy emphasizes) it is a system that enables us to see aspects of a way of life as a system of relations as patterend or systemic

→ fit pattern in how given group of people interact Biology and Culture Biology - Biology is innate to us - Biology is the basis for culture - Ex: food, reproduction Culture - Learned - Can be seen as providing form and meaning to biology - Influences intimacy - Ex: how we think Abstract Thought - Ability to comceptualize (think abstractly) or to abstract from the context we are in and think about another is based in our biology - Allows us to form symbols Symbols - Symbols are cultural - Basis of both culture and language - Give form and meaning to our ideas and concepts - Communication through symbols - Language is made up of symbols - We live in a symbolic world because culture and language uses symbols to organize and shape our perceptions of the world (a means to describe reality) Murphy Def of Culture and Symbols Culture (allows us to conceptionalize) - Set of symbols ( define our existence and allows us to know how to adapt to physical and social environments ) - Prime needs for communication - Culture is adaptive - Provides a way to organize world views which are shared through symbols, both through cultural symbols and through language - Does not define culture through behavior because these standards of conduct (social norms - informal guides for behavior) → generate behavior if they are shared between members of that group → conveys identity Culture and language are shared through symbols - Cultural symbols express values and culture also consists of shared values - Culture through its symbols and values provide meaning and purpose to people’s lives → from values follow norms, informal rules or guides for conduct → through symbols we become who we are

Culture, Socialization and Enculturation Culture - Holistic concept - Includes all aspects of given life Sociallization - General process of acquiring culture - Process of learnings one culture, values, norms, worldview Enculturalization - Process of being socialized to a particular culture - Process of learnings one culture, values, norms, worldview Cultural Relativism (antidote to enthocentrism) - Often misinterpreted with moral relativism - Morals vary from culture to culture - Ability to judge different societies/culturies without the standards of their own Ethnocentrivism - judging another society not relative to that culture’s values but relative to the values by which someone has been socialized to EX: different morals for murder through culture Two dimensions 1) To Seak, to interpret an aspect of a culture (it is a tool) - Expanding an aspect of culture relative to another society system of values and history 2) One can adopt the perspective of another culture or someone in it from their point of view - Conjoined with and following from that, understanding another group’s way of life or something specific to it from their point of view Language and Culture Murphy’s idea - Both are a symbolic system - Serve as a primary medium - Morphemes → units of meaning that mark tense such as ed in english - Culture EXPRESSES value that we are conjoined with and follow social norms → one can have personal values but values are not unique to each person → each group shares a set of values → ex: america = freedom and independence - What a culture values receives emphasis in linguistic language - Different societies have larger vocab with different elaborations Language can be seen as a filter or screen of how we view the world

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Both are adaptive in different places Both are given remarks of identity Tuareg - Famous for blue garments (known as blue men of the dessert) → testimony of how we can adapt through culture - Women never vailed, usually it was the men - Boubou → type of robe found against these people Core American Values - Education - Equality - Achievement - Justice for all Love and War - Two values universal among the world Jack London (Law of Life) - Set around arctic circle - Only about 5% of the eskimo inuit group live around or above arctic circle - Name “Eskimo Inuit” came from enemies because it is translated as raw meat eaters - Kos Kos → Headman position (leads by persuasion or example) → Old, Fraile, Deaf man left out to die because he couldnt bear the travel → eaten by a pack of wolves → Son came back for dad, checked up on him, and gave him wood to warm himself → Lugitarian political system (not much social hierarchy) Basic Color Categories Main colors universal among different cultures - Black = (dark) or death - Light = (light) or life - Blue = safety and trust - Red = (color of passion and emotion) danger, excitement, love, urgency Spair - Whorf Hypothesis Strong Form - language determines thought or perception Weak Form - language affects thought and perception

Definition - Structure of a language (grammar) shapes the native speaker’s way of perception and experience EX: Kos Kos tribe saw snow differently than how we see it here in Florida EX: Hopi people experience time differences because of language Hopi People - Hopi grammar does not inflect tense, where as english language uses tense - Given language/people shape influence and world view - Language is actually determining thoughts/perceptions Yanomami - Known as the fierce people - Core value = fierceness and aggression (DONT SAY VIOLENCE) → can be seen through verbal expression → wife beaters to show fierceness → Half of males died → EX: Insults, yelling, begging, stealing Levels of Violence 1) Chest pounding - If one is losing, they wont back down - Present themselves open to show fierceness - NOT trying to kill each other → if someone does then family members would want revenge 2) Club Fight - Whack each other, no killing - Open body to show fierceness 3) Ax Fight - Use dull part of axe - Not intended to kill 4) Shooting War/Raid (Most violent) - Results in death or killing - Kids and women can be captured from other tribes → women and children can be killed or adopted into tribe when kidnapped Headman Contrasts Kaobawai - Helped chagnon with names - Lead by examples - Fierce long ago but his natural following is large and now he doesnt have to constantly display his ferocity Rerebawi - Younger (21) - Leadership doesnt solely rely on violence - More concerned about his reputation for ferocity and goes out of way to act tough - From karohi-teri but to seek wife in

- Needed to develop skills Kaobawai’s tribe - Needs to lead more by example Napolian Chagnon (Anthropologist) - Argued that Y have a proclivity through violence - Found evidence through his fieldwork - Had to become fierce to adapt to this group → men stealed his plantains and he cut of the boards to their boats to show fierceness → confront men who stealed from him → started to become dirty (ate a meal once a day - didnt share) Demographics of Yanomami - Kineship → organizes and defines people - Name taboos → maintain a ame of deceased ancestor that cannot be spoken → norm of not mentioning name - Lived through cultivation (horticulture) → principle cropt - plantains/bananas → cultivate for 2,3 → 5 years Cultivation (Horticultivation) Definition Form of subsistence and a cultural means of adaption to an environment Ethnography - refers to the act of describing a given culture (Chagnon) or refers to an act of work that is a description of a particular culture Ethnology - cross culture comparison - Lead to more fighting of groups - Counters fieldworker idea that yanomami was violence - Chagnon worked with other anthropologist to get more reservation for yanomamo group Culture vs Agriculture Culture (Horticulture) - Makes use of simple technology and tools such as (digging sticks) - Typically no draft animals (no cattles) - Also known as shifting cultivation - moving from one area to another (moving to different soil in diff places) Agriculture - More Human Labor - More hours - Complex technology or machine

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Slash and burn technique = slash down Whatever they can cut down If underground is too thick (what they cant cut) → ash fertilizes soil Museum of Me Disintermediation - Cutting out middle man - losing/ cutting out intermediaries Individualism - One can pursue individual interest - Seemingly have unlimiting freedom Narcissim and Self absorption - This is formed because we think everthring revolves around us on the web - No other people involved on internet - Based on idea that we do NOT want shared experience Nuer Herders (Pastoralists) Characterisitics - Lives revolve around cattle - Mostly liquid diet - Around a dozen animals - Tall and thin → most because of their liquid products from their cattle (diet) → height might be contributed to consumption of milk - Prodominantely live by the river (nilotic people - live along banks of nile) - Transhumant = seasonally moving throughout the year → practice of moving livestock from one grazing area to another → Moves about 2 times per year (When nile floods, move away, when nile is dry, move towards it) → move from top to bottom when it snows or bottom to top when theres no snow Demographics - Lived mostly in South Sudan - Name translates to The People - Pastoralists, herders, many of cattle - Practiced partillineal descent → children belong to their father’s lineages and property is passed down in the male line - BrideWealth (Bride Price)

→ refers to a set of gift from the groom/family to the bride’s family to compensate her family for the loss of their daughter → without this there is no marriage, need this to get married → after this bride will move from her family to grooms (family has no claim on any kids she has) - Source of personal identities (nicknames) - No government (described as organized anarchy) → lacked law (implied culture/morals) → lacked social class (small social stratification) → Lineages were relatively equal power → Chief didnt give orders (would persuade and people would go to him to solve disputes) Evan Pitchhood British Famous Anthropologist - Malakai first welcomed him - Didnt feel welcomed by Nuer group, his servants feared them → they stayed by the river, didnt really go near the tribe - Had problems fitting in because they saw him as an invader (because british engaged in revolve and colonized them) → bombed nuer and their cattle → didnt want to give Evan info → Nuer believed they would have won if they had guns (Nuer were a warror society) - He gained acceptance from the Nuer Group by acquiring a few cattles - Evan wanted to find out info of their kinship and lineages (genealogies) → lineages - atleast 4 different generations of people who believe themselves to have common descent - Scarification → took place in younger male for identity Social Function of Cattle Source of prestige both as wealth and for being a good herder 1) Religious – a way of communication to spirit world - Sacrifice - Prayer 2) Bridewealth - - As gifts from the groom and family to bride's family 3) A source of personal identities "nicknames" - Women and Men pick the name of the cattle they are most closest to 4) Social (separate from biological or practical)