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Anthro 201 B Midterm 1

Sarah Church English 55 cards

Cards in this deck (55)

  1. 1How would you define "anthropology"?The idea that the social world in which we live does not exist in some absolute sense, but rather is simply one model or reality. Is the study of humankind in all places and in all times.
  2. 2What is cultural imperialism, and how is it tied to origins of anthropology as a discipline?Cultural imperialism refers to the promotion of one nation's values, beliefs, and behaviour about those of all others. Originally differentiated from sociology in stressing the importance of comparison between cultures and focusing on rural "primitive" societies that had not "progressed" rather than urban "civilized" societies.
  3. 3Where in the world do anthropologists typically work?Modern cultural anthropologists study cultural diversity in both rural and urban settings as human societies all over the world.
  4. 4What are the traditional four fields of anthropology?Biological anthropology
    Archaeology
    Linguistic Anthropology
    Sociocultural Anthropology
    Applied anthropology
  5. 5How did physical/biological anthropology begin as a discipline?Began as an attempt to classify all the world's populations into different races. Many scientists believed clear-cut criteria for racial classifications would be discovered.
  6. 6What is the difference between paleoanthropology and primatology?Paleoanthropology is the study of fossil remains of our ancient ancestors, in order to reconstruct the course of human biological evolution. Primatology is the study of the biological and social nature of our closest relatives: prosimians, monkeys, and apes.
  7. 7As a field of anthropology, what makes archaeology unique?Modern archaeology is guided by the scientific method and attempts to not only describe artifacts and features from archaeological sites but to interpret or explain the processes that led to change in the past
  8. 8What are some of the sub disciplines of linguistics?Descriptive (or structural) linguistics
    Historical linguistics
    Sociolinguistics
  9. 9What are the two important aspects of field work that are combined in the method of participant observation?Data is collected by participating with informants in social activities and observing those activities as outsiders
  10. 10Is ethnocentrism a good thing, or a bad thing?Judging another culture by the standards of one's own culture
  11. 11Why is it important to adopt a holistic approach in anthropology?The idea that the various parts of culture must be viewed in the broadest possible context to understand their interconnections and interdependence.
  12. 12Would you consider applied anthropology to be a separate field of anthropology in its own right? Why or why not?Applies an anthropological approach to solve practical cross-cultural problems in non-academic settings.
  13. 13Why is anthropology sometimes considered to be both a social science as well as one of the humanities?Anthropology is the most humanistic of the sciences and the most scientific of the humanities. Concern with cultures' languages, values and achievements in the arts and literature and a commitment to experiencing other cultures.
  14. 14Anthropologists are often considered to have ethical obligations to at least three sets of people. Who are these people?Those Studied
    Those Funding Research
    Those in the Profession
  15. 15How would you define culture? How is culture different from society?Sets of learned behaviour and ideas that we acquire as members of a society and share with other members of our society
  16. 16What are some of the functions of culture?Culture is used to explain the diversity of human life way's. Enables people to adapt to environments and circumstances. Provides the means for production and distribution of goods/services necessary for life.
  17. 17What are some of the characteristics that all cultures have in common?Culture is located in and transmitted by groups. Because people share a common culture, people can predict how others will act in given circumstances and react accordingly.
  18. 18What is culture shock?The shock, confusion, and insecurity that many people feel when living in an unfamiliar culture.
  19. 19What is a subculture? What is an example of a subculture in Canada?A group of people within a larger society who have distinctive standards and patterns of behaviour. Ie, hutterites.
  20. 20What are some of the ways that culture can vary within a given group?Misunderstandings and even violence may result from the cultural variation because members of different cultural groups may not understand the needs of other groups.
  21. 21What is an ethnic group?Are easy to label, but harder to specify culturally. A person's ethnicity may be multiple, or unclear to oneself, or vary depending upon the social situation
  22. 22What is the process by which culture is transmitted from one generation to the next?Enculturation
  23. 23What do we mean when we say that human beings are "biocultural"?We are products of both our biology AND our culture
  24. 24What are some of the lessons that can be learned by studying popular culture?Is linked to class-- elites have different popular culture than commoners-- and can be used to mark social boundaries.
  25. 25Is the spread of Western popular culture around the world a good or negative thing? why?Homogenization
  26. 26What is the difference between "ideal" and "real" culture?A people's own understanding of the way things ought to be and the extent to which they are following their cultural rules (ideal). Actual behaviour observed by the anthropologist (real).
  27. 27What is cultural relativism, and how can it be used to fight ethnocentrism?Can be countered by a commitment to cultural relativism, an attempt to understand the cultural underpinnings of behaviour.
  28. 28Does a commitment to a perspective of cultural relativism require that one abandon the values of one's own culture? Why or why not?It doesn't require use to abandon our culture's values, but it does discourage the easy solution of refusing to consider alternatives to the outset.
  29. 29Does cultural relativism mean that all cultural practices should be viewed as being accepted under certain circumstances? Why or why not?It makes moral decisions more difficult because it require us to take many things into account before we make up our minds.
  30. 30How is the concept of culture sometimes used in a potentially negative way to preserve the status quo in certain societies?The "monolithic" view of culture often seems to assume that members of a culture uncritically accept their differences from other groups and want to preserve these differences.
  31. 31What is "language"? Is language a cultural artifact?Language allows us to communicate using symbols
  32. 32What is displacement and why is it important to human language?The ability to refer to objects and events removed in time and space. Allowed our ancestors to communicate, strategize and analyze the surrounding world and set us on the road toward cultural complexity.
  33. 33From a linguistic perspective, what is a symbol?Sounds and gestures that stand for meaning among a group of people
  34. 34What is descriptive linguistics? What sort of training does one require to do descriptive linguistic research?The study of patterns and structure in language. Training in phonetics is necessary to do descriptive linguistic research
  35. 35How is a phoneme different from a morpheme?A phoneme is the smallest classes of sound that make a difference in meaning. Morpheme is the smallest units of sound that carry meaning
  36. 36What is the difference between a free morpheme and a bound morpheme?A free morpheme occur unattached in a language, i.e.., dog and cat. A bound morpheme is a sound that can occur in a language only in combination with other sounds, like s is a plural in english.
  37. 37From a linguistic perspective, how is syntax different from grammar?Syntax are the rules or principles of phrase and sentence making. Grammar is the entire formal structure of a language consisting of all observations about the morphemes and syntax.
  38. 38Are form classes also syntactic units?The parts of speech or categories of words that work the same way in a sentence
  39. 39What does a linguistic anthropologist mean when she says that human language is embedded in a gesture-call system?Involving body language and extralinguistic noises that provides an appropriate frame/context for interpreting speech
  40. 40What does kinesics study?A system of notating and analyzing postures, facial expressions, and body motions that convey messages
  41. 41What is proxemics?The study of the cultural use of space
  42. 42What are the six key design features of human language that were discussed in class? Who identified these?Charles Hockett
    Openness, displacement, arbitrariness, duality or patterning, semanticity, prevarication.
  43. 43What does historical linguistics study?The study of language origins, language change, and the relationship between languages
  44. 44What is a language family? Which language family(s) does English belong to?A group of language ultimately descended from a single ancestral language
  45. 45What is glottochronology and how is it relevant to historical linguistics?A method of dating divergence in branches of language families. Based on the assumption that the core vocabulary changes at a more or less constant rate.
  46. 46What is the core vocabulary of a language?Pronouns, lower numerals, and names of body parts, natural objects and basic actions.
  47. 47What are some of the factors that might contribute to linguistic change over time?Borrowing from other languages, we admire others who can make up words, professional sects and other groups often use special vocabularies that effectively exclude other groups.
  48. 48Why is linguistic diversity under threat in the 21st century?States may suppress languages to exert dominance. Loss of languages=cultural impoverishment.... we lose part of the human experience when we lose a language.
  49. 49What do ethnolinguistics and sociolinguistics study?Ethnolinguistics study the relation between language and culture. Sociolinguistics is the study of language within its social setting.
  50. 50What is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis? How is it related to the concept of linguistic determinism?The hypothesis, proposed by linguist Benjamin Whorf (based on theories of Edward Sapir), that states that language, by providing habitual grooves of expression, predisposes people to see the world in a certain way and thus guides their thinking and behaviour.
  51. 51Can language be used to reinforce gender differences in a given society?In any culture, the social use of language often reflects and reinforces established or traditional gender differences.
  52. 52Are dialects fully functional languages?All dialects are fully functional languages-- there is nothing partial or inferior about any one dialect (though they may be treated as inferior for political purposes).
  53. 53What is code switching?The process of changing from one level of language to another
  54. 54What is the difference between a pidgin language and a creole language?Pidgin is a language that combines and simplifies elements of two or more languages.
    Creole is a more complex pidgin language that has become the mother tongue of a significant population.
  55. 55—

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Description
End of chapter review questions.
Created by
Sarah Church · Oct 2016
Updated
Apr 6, 2018
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