Anthropology: Culture and Society

• Anthropology studies humans in a broad sense, including our past, present, biology, culture, and societies.

Chapter 1: What is Anthropology

• Culture encompasses the shared beliefs, customs, and behaviors of a group of people.
• Anthropology takes a holistic approach, studying humans in a broad, all-encompassing way, considering biology, culture, history, and language.
• All parts of a culture are interconnected, and changing one aspect affects others.
• Cultural relativism involves understanding other cultures without judging them based on the standards of one's own culture.
• Enculturation is the process by which people learn culture from birth through social interactions.
• Ethnocentrism is the belief that one's own culture is superior, leading to the judgment of others by one's own cultural standards.
• The four subfields of anthropology are cultural anthropology, archaeology, biological anthropology, and linguistic anthropology.
• Applied anthropology utilizes anthropological knowledge to solve real-world problems related to health, environment, and development.

Chapter 2: Methods

• Excavation involves digging up historical remains to study the past.
• Stratigraphy involves studying layers of soil to date artifacts.
• Relative dating estimates the age of something by comparing it to other things.
• Absolute dating uses scientific techniques, such as carbon dating, to determine the exact age of an artifact or fossil.
• Fossils are preserved remains of ancient living things.
• Artifacts are any objects made by humans, including tools and pottery.
• Ethnography is a detailed study of a culture achieved by living among the people.
• Participant observation involves anthropologists actively engaging in a culture to study it.
• A role is the expected behavior in a culture.
• Key informants are individuals within a society who provide insights to anthropologists.
• Genealogies involve studying family history and lineage in a society.
• The emic perspective involves understanding a culture from the viewpoint of insiders.
• The etic perspective involves understanding a culture from an outsider's scientific viewpoint.
• Biological anthropology and archaeology share field techniques such as excavation, fossil/artifact analysis, and dating methods.
• Ethnographers use participant observation to gain a firsthand, deep understanding of a culture.
• Both emic and etic perspectives are useful for understanding culture.

Chapter 3: Culture

• Culture refers to the learned and shared behaviors, beliefs, and customs of a group of people.
• A society consists of a group of people who share a culture and interact with one another.
• A symbol is something that represents something else, such as a flag representing a country.
• Worldview refers to how people see and interpret the world based on their culture.
• Some animals use tools and teach behaviors, but human culture is far more complex.
• Human cultures vary due to history, environment, and interactions, even in similar locations.

Chapter 4: Biological Evolution

• A species is a group of organisms that can reproduce together.
• Natural selection, or "survival of the fittest," is when traits that aid survival get passed on.
• Adaptation refers to changes in organisms to better survive in their environment.
• Mutation refers to random changes in DNA that can lead to evolution.
• Genetic drift refers to random changes in a population's genes over time.
• Gene flow is the exchange of genes between different populations.
• Speciation occurs when one species evolves into a new species.
• Genus is a category in classification; humans belong to the Homo genus.
• Stereoscopic vision is 3D vision, good for depth perception.
• Brachiation is swinging from trees, a common form of locomotion for apes.
• Opposable thumbs are thumbs that can touch the fingertips, useful for grasping.
• Bipedalism is walking on two legs.
• Cultural transmission involves passing knowledge and behaviors to the next generation.
• Sahelanthropus tchadensis is one of the earliest known human ancestors, dating back approximately 7 million years ago.
• Ardipithecus ramidus is an early bipedal species that lived approximately 4.4 million years ago.
• Australopithecus africanus is an early hominin with a mix of ape and human traits, dating back approximately 3 million years ago.
• Evolution is usually gradual because small changes accumulate over generations.
• New species arise when populations become isolated and evolve separately.
• Typical primate traits include intelligence, grasping hands, forward-facing eyes, and social behavior.
• Typical human traits include bigger brains, language, and walking upright.
• The first hominins were distinguished from their ancestors by bipedalism.

Chapter 5: Human Evolution – Genus Homo

• Homo erectus is an early human species known for using fire and tools.
• Homo sapiens neanderthalensis are Neanderthals, close relatives of modern humans.
• Anatomically modern Homo sapiens refers to modern humans with advanced culture and technology.
• The first members of the genus Homo were distinguished from their ancestors by having larger brains and making better tools.
• Human babies are born early compared to other primates because of larger brain size, necessitating more care.

Chapter 6: Language and Communication

• The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis posits that language influences how we think and see the world.
• Language socialization is learning language as part of cultural learning.
• Language revitalization is an effort to bring back endangered languages.
• Linguistic relativity holds that different languages shape thought in different ways.
• Linguistic universals are features common to all languages.
• Language shapes experiences.

Chapter 7: Economic Anthropology

• Egalitarian means everyone is equal.
• Cultivation is the process of growing plants for food.
• Domestication is selectively breeding plants and animals for human use.
• Horticulture is small-scale farming using simple tools.
• Agriculture is large-scale farming.
• Domestic production involves producing goods at home.
• Industrialism is mass production using machines.
• Post-industrialism is an economy based on services and technology, not manufacturing.
• Reciprocity is trading goods without money.
• Redistribution involves collecting goods and giving them out, as with taxes.
• Marketization is buying and selling in a money-based economy.
• Humans shifted from foraging to food production 12,000 years ago due to climate change making farming possible, population growth requiring stable food sources, overhunting making foraging less sustainable, surplus storage allowing for future food security, and social shifts leading to specialization and permanent settlements.
• Food production and state formation occurred more slowly in the New World due to fewer domesticable animals, geographic barriers slowing crop spread, a lack of metal tools delaying tech advancements, and smaller populations taking longer to form large states.
• Nomadic hunter-gatherer bands are small, mobile groups (20-50 people) that are egalitarian with shared resources, have a reciprocity-based economy, and minimal possessions, and seek to avoid conflict by moving to solve disputes.
• Small, egalitarian groups can rely solely on reciprocity as a means of economic distribution.
• Socioeconomic problems associated with the industrialized food system include environmental damage, health issues, corporate control limiting local farmers, labor exploitation, and food insecurity.

Chapter 8: Political Anthropology

• A band is a small, nomadic group with no central authority.
• A tribe is a larger group that may have informal leaders but no central government.
• A chiefdom is a society ruled by a chief, with a social hierarchy.
• A state is a large, structured society with a government and laws.
• Centralized authority means a single person or group holds power.
• In bands and tribes, conflict is avoided through social pressure, negotiation, avoidance, and gift-giving.

Chapter 9: Social Inequalities

• The Colonial Era was a time when European countries took control of other lands.
• The Industrial Revolution was a shift to machine-based economies, increasing social class divisions.
• Proletarianism is when people lose land and must sell labor for wages (working class).
• Social stratification is society divided into unequal groups based on wealth, power, and status.
• Class refers to social groups based on wealth/mobility that can change over time.
• Caste is a fixed social group you’re born into that you cannot move up or down in.
• Accumulated wealth creates systems of social inequality by affording power, access to education, and better jobs.
• Unequal systems perpetuate the wealth of the rich and the poverty of the poor.
• The “American Dream” is a pervasive ideology in the United States where hard work is thought to equal success; however, not everyone has equal chances because of race, wealth, and education.
• Poor education, job discrimination, and wealth gaps create barriers that restrict people’s ability to achieve the American Dream.

Chapter 10: Human Migration

• Cultural hybridity is when cultures mix and create new cultural forms.
• Internal migration is moving within a country, such as from rural to city.
• Postcolonialism refers to the lasting effects of colonialism on countries and cultures.
• Transnationalism refers to people maintaining cultural connections across countries.
• Migration played a role in human evolution, with early humans moving to new environments, leading to adaptation and genetic diversity.
• Early theories suggest that people came to the Americas from Asia via the Bering Land Bridge or along the coast in boats.
• Colonialism functioned as a global movement where European countries took over land, controlled economies, spread their culture, and exploited resources.