Download Exam #1 Study Guide… Chapter 1… Explain how anthropology

Exam #1 Study Guide…
Chapter 1…
Explain how anthropology helps us better understand ourselves. [Remember/Understand]
Recount how and why the discipline emerged and evolved. [Remember/Understand]
Describe the main influences on Canadian anthropology. [Remember]
Discuss anthropology’s relationship to the other social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences.
[Remember/Understand]
Identify the five subfields of anthropology, and discuss their purpose and practice. [Remember]
Demonstrate anthropology’s applied focus in Canada and around the world, using examples from the
subfields. [Apply]
Distinguish between the research emphasis and methods of ethnographers, ethnologists, and
ethnohistorians and recognize the limits of such research. [Analyze]
Discuss the relevance of anthropology in modern Canadian society. [Understand/Apply]
Define gender, and distinguish between gender and sex. [Remember/Understand]
KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS
1. Anthropology—The study of humankind in all times and places. (page 4)
2.
Colonialism—When one nation dominates another, through occupation (colonies),
administration (military presence), and control of resources, thereby creating a dependency. (page 5)
3.
Cultural imperialism—Promoting one nation’s values, beliefs, and behaviour as superior to those
of all others. Often associated with the Western world inundating other cultural groups with technology,
religion, and ways of living (most often via the media), but also through missionism (see Chapter 12),
education, and economic media), but also through missionism (see Chapter 12), education, and
economic control, thereby strongly influencing how people will live. (page 5)
4.
Biological anthropology—The study of humans as biological organisms. (page 9)
5.
Palaeoanthropology—The study of fossil remains with the goal of reconstructing human
biological evolution. (page 9)
6.
Primatology—The study of nonhuman primates, their biology, adaptation, and social behaviour.
(page 9)
7. Forensic anthropology—A field of applied biological anthropology and archaeology that specializes
in the identification of human skeletal remains for legal purposes. (page 10)
8.
Archaeology—The study of material remains to reconstruct the lives of people who lived in the
past. (page 10)
9.
Prehistoric/pre-contact archaeology—The study of ancient cultures that did not possess writing
systems to record their history. (page 10)
10.
Historic archaeology—The study of past cultures that possessed written records of their history.
(page 10)
11.
Linguistic anthropology—The study of how people use language to relate to each other and how
they develop and transmit culture. (page 11)
12.
Descriptive linguistics—The study of patterns and structure in language. (page 11)
13.
Historical linguistics—The study of language origins, language change, and the relationships
between languages. (page 11)
14.
Sociolinguistics—The study of language in its social setting. (page 12)
15.
Sociocultural anthropology—The study of human behaviour in contemporary cultures. (page 12)
16.
Culture bound—Theories about the world and reality based on the assumptions and values of
one’s own culture. (page 12)
17.
Ethnography—The collection of descriptive material on a culture. (page 13)
18.
Ethnology—The comparative study of cultures to explain human behaviour. (page 13)
19.
Ethnohistory—The study of cultures from the recent past using oral histories, archaeological
sites, and written accounts left by explorers, missionaries, and traders. (page 13)
20.
Participant observation—A method of learning a people’s culture through direct observations
and participation in their everyday life. (page 13)
21.
Culture shock—The difficulty anthropologists have in adapting to a new culture that differs
markedly from their own. (page 13)
22.
Holistic perspective—A fundamental principle of anthropology, that the various parts of culture
must be viewed in the broadest possible context to understand their interconnections and
interdependence. (page 13)
23. Key informants/respondents—Members of a culture who help the ethnographer interpret what she
or he observes. The term “respondents” or “subjects” is lately preferred over “informant,” since the
latter has negative connotations associated with providing inside information to authorities. (page
14)
24.
Popular culture—The culture of our everyday lives—television, sports, fashion, arts and crafts,
fiction, and music. (page 16)
25.
Cross-cultural comparison—Comparing one particular aspect of a culture with that same aspect
in others. (page 18)
26.
Gender—A set of standards and behaviours attached to individuals, usually but not always
based on biological sex. (page 21)
27.
Feminist anthropology—A subfield of anthropology that investigates gender and gender
relations and that critically analyzes gender roles, positions, and experiences. (page 21)
28.
Androcentrism—Male-centredness. (page 21)
29.
Qualitative research—The gathering of data based on interviews, documents, and participant
observation to understand human social behaviour. (page 22)
30.
Quantitative research—The gathering of statistical and measurable data. (page 22)
Chapter 2...
Define culture and describe its characteristics. [Remember/Understand]
Define enculturation and identify enculturative forces in Canadian society. [Remember/Understand]
Recognize the unique nature of pluralistic societies. [Apply]
Explain how anthropologists study culture. [Understand]
Discuss how culture functions and the relationship between culture and adaptation. [Analyze]
Recognize the tendency for humans to evaluate other cultures, and explain the role of cultural relativism
in anthropology and in everyday life. [Evaluate]
1.
Culture—The shared ideals, values, and beliefs that people use to interpret experience and to
generate behaviour and that are reflected by their behaviour. (page 30)
2.
Society—A group of people who live in the same region, speak the same language, and are
interdependent. (page 31)
3.
Multiculturalism—Descriptor for a society, community, etc., made up of, involving, or relating
to several distinct racial or religious cultures. Contrast with biculturalism or monoculturalism. (page 31)
4.
Social structure—The relationships of groups within a society that hold it together. (page 31)
5.
Subculture—A cultural subgroup differentiated by status, ethnic background, residence,
religion, or other factors that functionally unify the group and act collectively on each member. (page
34)
6..
Pluralistic societies—Societies that contain several distinct cultures and subcultures. (page 36)
7.
Ethnicity—A group of people who take their identity from a common place of origin, history, and
sense of belonging. (page 36)
8.
Ethnic boundary markers—Those indicators or characteristics, such as dress and language, that
identify individuals as belonging to a particular ethnic group. (page 36)
9.
Enculturation—The process that transmits a society’s culture from one generation to the next.
(page 39)
10.
Integration—The tendency for all aspects of a culture to function as an interrelated whole.
(page 40)
11.
Microculture—A group of people who share common interests and or experiences, from which
they take their identity. (page 40)
12.
Ethnocentrism—The practice of judging other cultures from the perspective of one’s own
culture. (page 44)
13. Cultural relativism—The thesis that one must suspend judgment on other peoples’ practices to
understand them in their own cultural terms. (page 44)
14. Human rights—A set of guidelines for the equal treatment of all people, regardless of gender, age,
or ethnicity. (page 45)
Chapter 3...
Recognize that culture is now humanity’s major mode of adaptation. [Remember/Understand]
Identify the fossil ancestors of our species and approximately where and when they lived.
[Remember/Understand]
Describe the biological changes that led to the current physical structure of our species.
[Remember/Understand]
Understand the relationship of culture to the evolution of a more complex brain.
[Remember/Understand]
Identify the major milestones in the development of culture, and approximately where and when they
occurred. [Remember/Understand]
Explain how the study of human evolution complements and enhances the study of the diversity found
in contemporary cultures. [Understand/Apply]
Compare and contrast the physiology and anatomy of nonhuman primates to hominids to understand
the development of humans. [Analyze]
Assess the connection between meat eating and tool development and its relationship to brain
development. [Analyze/Evaluate]
Appraise the archaeological evidence supporting the existence of apelike ancestors existing between 15
million and 8 million years ago. [Evaluate]
Critically examine the theories presented for the peopling of the New World. [Evaluate]
KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS
1. Primate Order—The group of mammals that includes lemurs, lorises, tarsiers, monkeys, apes, and
humans. (page 50)
2.
Natural selection—The evolutionary mechanism by which individuals with characteristics best
suited to a particular environment survive and reproduce with greater frequency than those without
them. (page 50)
3.
Paleoanthropology—The study of extinct members of the genus Homo sapiens. (page 53)
4.
Hominid—Any member of a family (Hominidae) of two-legged primates, including all forms of
humans, extinct and living. (page 54)
5.
Hominin—A tribe of hominoid primates, the hominini, to which all human species, including
those that are extinct, are assigned. (page 54)
6.
Australopithecus—The earliest well-known hominin, who lived between 1 million and 4.2 million
years ago and includes several species. (page 54)
7.
Homo habilis—The earliest species of the genus Homo. (page 55)
8.
Oldowan tools—The earliest identifiable stone tools that first appeared 2.5 million years ago.
(page 56)
9.
Paleolithic—The Old Stone Age, characterized by chipped stone tools. (page 56)
10.
Homo erectus—The species of Homo immediately postdating Homo habilis. The species
generally refers to the Asian species, but some scholars contend that the African and European
specimens are also this species. (page 57)
11.
Homo ergaster—An alternative (and the original) classification of the African species of Homo
that is also called Homo erectus. (page 58)
12.
Homo georgicus—A species of Homo dating to 1.8 million years ago in the Republic of Georgia.
There is some question about whether it is actually Homo habilis or Homo erectus. (page 58)
13.
Acheulian tradition—A tool tradition mainly associated with Homo ergaster in Africa and
Europe, characterized by teardrop-shaped axes and flake tools. Named after the site where it was first
defined, St-Acheul, France, it lasted from 1.5 million to about 150,000 years ago. (page 59)
14.
Homo heidelbergensis—The species of Homo from about 500,000 or as much as 800,000 years
ago to the appearance of Neanderthals. An alternative to the term “archaic Homo sapiens.” (page 60)
15.
Homo sapiens—The modern human species. (page 60)
16.
Neanderthal—Homo neanderthalensis, the representative group of the genus Homo living in
Europe and the Middle East from about 125,000 years ago to about 30,000 years ago. (page 61)
17.
Mousterian—A tool-making tradition of the Neanderthals and their contemporaries of Europe,
southwestern Asia, and North Africa. (page 61)
18.
Upper Paleolithic peoples—The first people of modern appearance, who lived in the last part
(Upper Paleolithic) of the Old Stone Age. (page 62)
Chapter 5...
Describe the role of adaptation in cultural survival. [Remember]
Identify and discuss the characteristics of the food foraging way of life. [Remember/Understand]
Identify and describe the characteristics of food-producing societies: horticulturalists, pastoralists,
intensive agriculturalists, and mechanized agriculturalists. [Remember/Understand]
Recognize the impact that food-producing strategies have had on our way of life. [Remember]
Explain the problems faced by modern Canadian farmers. [Understand]
KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS
1. Patterns of subsistence—Food-procuring strategies. Sometimes called the subsistence round. (page
98)
2.
Horticulture—Normally small-scale cultivation of crops using hand tools such as digging sticks or
hoes. (page 98)
3.
Anthropogenesis—The process whereby ecosystems are influenced or altered by humans.
Examples include human impact on the environment through pollution, farming, or construction. (page
99)
4.
Ecosystem—A system, or a functioning whole, composed of both the physical environment and
the organisms living within it. (page 99)
5.
Carrying capacity—The number of people the available resources can support at a given
technological level. (page 104)
6.
Density of social relations—Roughly the number and intensity of interactions among the
members of a camp or other residential unit. (page 104)
7.
Neolithic Age—New Stone Age. In the Middle East, this period is dated between 8300 and 4500
BC. The Neolithic Age signalled the introduction of domesticated plants and animals, ceramics, and
polished stone tools—all related to a change in the subsistence strategy from foraging to horticulture
and agriculture. The name, derived from Greek, translates as “new stone age” (neo = “new,” lithos =
“stone”). (page 109)
8.
Swidden farming—An extensive form of horticulture in which the natural vegetation is cut, the
slash is subsequently burned, and crops are planted among the ashes. (page 110)
9.
Intensive agriculture—Large-scale cultivators employing fertilizers, irrigation, equipment, and
draft animals. (page 110)
10.
Pastoralism—A subsistence strategy that relies on domesticated herd animals and usually
requires seasonal movement to pastures. (page 111)
11.
Mechanized agriculture—Large-scale agriculture dependent on complex technology and
biotechnology rather than human power to increase production. (page 117)
Essay questions for chapters 1,2,3 and 5...
1. Discuss the characteristics of participant observation and how this method contributes to more
accurate ethnographic understanding?
2. What are three ethical questions that may be raised in carrying out anthropological research?
What are some of the related ethical dilemmas that anthropologists may encounter in the field?
3. Because of the male bias of his European culture, Bronislaw Malinowski’s pioneering study of
the Trobriand Islanders missed many important factors. Discuss the significant factors that were
overlooked due to male bias.
4. Why have anthropologists adopted an approach of cultural relativism when they are engaged in
ethnographic research?
5. Discuss the impact of diet on human evolution, drawing on Homo habilis as a key example.
6. Why are concepts of carrying capacity and social density important to our understanding of the
food-foraging adaptation?
7. How do anthropologists define culture?
8. What are the main characteristics of the food-foraging way of life?
9. Briefly describe the main differences between the Australopithecines, Homo habilis and Homo
erectus.