Test 2

Cultural Anthropology 130 with Button at University of Tennessee - Knoxville

About this deck

By: Alex Jansen
Textbook:

Culture Sketches: Case Studies in Anthropology
Created: 2011-10-26
Size: 67 flashcards
Views: 149

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Race

-- Race is not a biological fact, it is a social construct

-- Race refers to a group of people with supposedly homogenous biological traits

What are races based upon?

-- Phenotypical characteristics on which races are based supposedly reflect genetic material, but phenotypical characteristics DON'T have a genetic basis because of change (environment etc.)

Racial Classifications

-- Are social constructs to which individuals are assigned to separate "our" group from others

-- Largely used by certain groups to justify discrimination (exploitation and genocide)

All humans are one biological race

Homo Sapiens

Key Feature of Racial thinking:

--Instence that behavioral differences among peoples is "natural"

Key to behavioral difference

-- Culture, NOT biology is the key to behavioral difference

Blumenbach's 5 "human races"

-Caucasian

-Mongolian

-Ethiopian

-Malayan

-American

What is Race used as?

-- Race is historically used as a social/political tool, and races are not a valid biological concept

Social Races

-Groups historically segregated on the basis of arbitrarily selected phtsical traits, in order to justify dominance and control

- different status and oppertunities for each group

- common experiences among people within a group

Racism

-- Involves the belief that customs, behaviors, and beliefs are biologically inherited and can be ranked

Racism and Slavery

-- Racism didnt emerge until the 16th and 17th centuries

-- Myths of radical inferiority of people of a darker skin color emerged as a rationalization of slavery

-- Appeals to science were used to justify these views

Recent scientific racism

-- Gobinewu used "scientific racism" to justify the spread of european cononialism in Asia, Africa and the Americas

-- Hitler borrowed his ideology through Gobineau, was anti-semetic

Livlihood Straregies

-food collection

-food production

- industry

-instinctive behavior

Food collection

--Hunting and gathering

- direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild, w/o domestication

- oldest way of making a living

- foragers depend on a complex understanding of the environment and the location of wate

Food production

--Horticulture

-- Agriculture

-- Pastoralism

Horticulture

-not exclusive

-associated with nomadism

-cultivation of plants with hand tools and supplimented by foraging and trading for food

- men clear the land, men and women plant together, women harvest, men hunt and fish, women gather

Agriculture

- caused by climactic changes and population growth

-refers to the domestication of plants

-growing crops on permanent plots, there are strategies so that the same plot of land can be used repeatedly without the land losing its fertility

-Agriculture impacts: population growth- sedentarism- supply of water- public works- labor specialization- socio-political organization- organized religion- complex societies

Pastoralism

- "Pastoral revolution"

- domestication of animals

- practiced in semi arid areas that are not suitable for cultivation

-interdependence with horti/agricultural groups

-nomadic, small groups

-men do herding, women process the products, small animals are herded by women, larger animals herded by men, women do clothing, etc.

Sexual Dimorphism

-Breast/hair distribution

-weight, strength, height

- men tend to be taller

-more pronounced reduction in sexual dimorphism during human evolution

Families

- family of orientation (family in which one is born/raised)

-family of procreation (formed when one marries and has children)

- different views on types of family ^

Nuclear Family

-one kind of kinship group that is widespread in human societies

-less than 1/4 of all american households

Descent

-a permanent social unit whos members claim common anscetry. these groups are determined at birth and they are life long

Patrilineal

- Automatic membership into mother and father's groups

Demonstrated descent

- lineages use it

Stipulated decent

-clans use it

Patrolocality

- the rule is that when the couples marry they moce to the husbands community

Martilocality

- married couples live in the wives community

Marriage

- no definition broad enough to be universally valid

Economy marriage

- one of the ways converting strangers into friends and creating political alliances and relationships. It has adaptive value in that it creates a wider social network

Endogomy

- dictates mating and marriage withing a group of which one belongs, it is lss common than economy

Marital rights

- marriage can accomplish: -legal parents of a child- spouses the rights of the labor of the other- spouses rights over each other's property- establish a joint fund of property for the benefit of the children- socially significant "relationship of affinity" between spouses and their relatives

Bridewealth

- compensates the brides group for the loss of her companionship and labor, equally important brideswealth makes the bride's children a member of the husband's descent group

Dowry

- Marital exchange in which the bride's family or king group provides substantial gifts when their daughter marries. usually the gifts go to the husband's family

Polygamy

- men have more than one wife, is accepted in other cultures

-some inherit wives from another brother, others want to increase prestige or household productivity

Polyandry

-Rare and practiced under specific circumstances (south asia)

-women have multiple husbands

Religion

- set of attitudes, beliefs, and practices pertaining to supernatural power

-studied cross-culturally

-sacred vs. profane is hard to distinguish

-provides meaning when no control or understanding is possible

Elements of religious beliefs

-creation story

-belief in the supernatural

-funerary practices

Tylor

-one of the earliest social scientists to systematically study religion

-belief in souls was the earliest form of religion

-animism: to refer to the belief in souls

Emilie Durkheim

- stressed the collective social share and enacted nature of religion, the emotions it generates means it embodies

How religion maintains social control

- series of moral and ethical beliefs

-mobilizing its members for collective action

Power of religion affects

-social mobilization-- formal code of ethics

- stressing the possibility of eternal punishment

Wallace's 4 categories of religion:

-shamanic

-communial

-olympian

-monotheistic

shamanic religions

- part time religious interediaries who act as curers, these religions are most characteristic of foragers

Communal religions

-shamans community rituals, multiple nature gods, and are more characteristic of food producers than foragers

Olympian Religions

-first appeared with states, have full time religious specialists whose organizations may mimic the state's, have different types of gods who exist as pantheon

Monotheistic religions

- have all the attributes of olympian religions except that the pantheon of gods is subsumed under a single, eternal, omniscent, omnipotent, and omnipresent being

Rituals

-Formal sequences of actions preformed in both religious and secular contexts

Rites of passage

- religious/secular rituals which mark and facilitate a person's movement from one social state of being to another

--Sweparation

-- Liminality

-- Incorporation

Rites of passage- Separation

- the participants withdraw from the group and begin moving from one place to another

Rites of passage- Liminality

- the period between states during which the participants have left one place but has not yet entered the next

Rites of passage- Incorporation

- the participants reenter the society with a new status having completed the rite

Mana

- defined as belief in an eminent supernatural domain or life force potentially subject to human manipulations

Totemism

- type of religion in which emelents of nature act as savred templates for society by means of symbolic association

Magic

- refers to the manipulation of the supernatural to accomplish specific aims

- also involves persuading the supernatural to act on our behalf

Taboo

- polynesian term meaning prohibition: a fetish believed to embody a supernatural power

Syncretism

- a cultural mix, including religious blends that emerge when 2 or more cultural traditions come into contact

New orleans (movie)

-st. bernard parrish flooded w/ 5-12 ft of water

-27000 homes destroyed

-67000 people displaced

-racial flexibility, good food, wealth of spirit and creole culture

-Racism is a big problem in SBP

-residents can not get insurance coverage they need

Tennessee (Movie)

- global economy puts workers against eachother

- east TN many workers struggle to form union contracts

-lost thousands of jobs to mexicans b/c of cheaper wages

-3 times during the 80's, mexico devalued the peso

-"cant hire a slave"

Life and Debt (Movie)

-civil unrest-worst case in Jamaica

-Jamaica at one time was ruled by the queen of great britian

-Independence in 1962

Jamacia cannot finance what it needs

-no new hospitals in Jamaica

-Cheaper to buy goods from america than jamaica: no produce market for homeland farmers

-Washington DC forces farmers to pay a rate of intrest @ 23%

- exports 9000 lbs of bananas to the UK

-no unions on plantations

-asians are snipping to work in the factories to be paid in us $, while jamaicans are paid in Jamaican$

Art

-Most societies don't have a word for art

-an attempt by an individual to express feelings and ideas

- form of social communication

-vehicle to communicate messages of cultural importance (religious, political, social)

- effort to please deities and rules

Art and Labor

- In most societies, art is a form of labor

- in non state societies (no strict division of labor), artists cannot work full-time on their art, as they must hunt, gather, fish, herd, or farm to obtain the resources they need to survive

-in state societies, artists are full time specialists whose career is their work

Art and religion

-Much of western and non-western art has been created in association with religion

-state-level societies have permanent structures for religion and art

Art and Political Organization

-In states, art is housed in special buildings like museums, concert halls, and theaters. permanence and longevity are emphasized

-In non-states, artistic expression takes place in public spaces that have been set aside for such purpose, such as woods, caves, or other significant landmarks

-other cultures can include masks, carvings, weavings, body decorations, music, dance, storytelling, fashion, paintings, pottery, paintings on objects

Western Art

- produced by a trained artist, made for sale, associated with a particular artist, its uniqueness is valued and it is not considered to be utilitarian but produced as "art for art's sake"

Non Western Art

-characterized as being created by someone with no training, not produced for the market, the artist is anonymous, and the object is made primarily for everyday use

Art Qualities

-Stimulates the senses, affects emotion, evokes ideas

-has cultural meaning.

Body decoration in other societies

- used to dealienate, social position, rank, sex, occupation, local and ethnic identity or religion

- in addition to social stratification, such adornment might be a way of declaring status

-Many times there is erotic significance to body decoration (also fashion)

About this deck

By: Alex Jansen
Textbook:

Culture Sketches: Case Studies in Anthropology
Created: 2011-10-26
Size: 67 flashcards
Views: 149

About StudyBlue

“I have used this website for three exams, and I see a huge difference in my test results.”
Naj