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Key Terms ========= **archaeology:** the branch of anthropology that studies human history and its artifacts. archaeologists typically look at the material remains of human groups in order to learn how people lived. **biological anthropology:** a subdiscipline of anthropology that focuses on the e...

Key Terms ========= **archaeology:** the branch of anthropology that studies human history and its artifacts. archaeologists typically look at the material remains of human groups in order to learn how people lived. **biological anthropology:** a subdiscipline of anthropology that focuses on the evolution, function, and health of the human body and those of our closest primate ancestors. **critical cultural relativism:** an alternate perspective on cultural relativism that poses questions about cultural beliefs and practices in terms of who accepts them and why, who they might be disproportionately harming and benefiting, and the cultural power dynamics that enable them. **cultural relativism:** the effort to understand the beliefs and behaviours of other cultures in terms of the culture in which they are found. **cultural text:** a way of thinking about culture as a text of significant symbols, such as words, gestures, drawings, and natural objects, all of which carry meaning **culture:** the system of meanings about the nature of experience that are shared by a people and passed on from one generation to another, including the meanings that people give to things, events, activities, and people. **ethnocentric fallacy:** the mistaken notion that the beliefs and behaviours of other cultures can be judged from the perspective of one\'s own culture. **ethnocentrism:** the tendency to judge the beliefs and behaviours of other cultures from the perspective of one\'s own culture. **linguistic anthropology:** a study of the relationship between language and culture. linguistic anthropologists explore how people use language, both in a physical sense with regard to how communication is structured, and in a historical sense with regard to how different languages have developed and spread throughout history. **relativistic fallacy:** the idea that it is impossible to make moral judgements about the beliefs and behaviours of members of other cultures. **society:** the social structures and organization of a group comprised of people who share a territory and culture. **sociocultural anthropology:** a comparative approach to the study of societies and cultures that focuses on differences and similarities in the ways that societies are structured and cultural meanings are created. **armchair anthropology:** refers to an approach to the study of various societies that dominated anthropology in the late 1800s. this approach used \[European and American writings\] to make comparisons and generalizations about the ways of life of various groups. **culture shock:** refers to a feeling of disorientation in the initial stages of fieldwork when an anthropologist is adjusting to a new language, beliefs, food, or even climate. **emic perspective:** traditionally refers to an "insider's perspective". **etic perspective:** refers to the analysis of a particular group of people using comparative categories, explanations, and interpretation from the perspective of an outside observer. **essentialism:** the act of creating generalizations or stereotypes about the behaviour or culture of a group of people. **ethnographic fieldwork:** a research method in which sociocultural anthropologists have intensive, long-term engagement with a group of people. it may involve the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods, including interviews, participant observation, and survey-based research. **ethnography:** a written description and analysis of a particular group of people, usually based upon anthropological fieldwork. **informed consent:** the ongoing process of ensuring that research participants understand the goals, methods, and potential outcomes of the research process and give permission for the research to conduct said research. **multi-sited fieldwork:** this term, coined by George Marcus in 1995, refers to the process of connecting localized experiences of fieldwork with broader, global processes. it necessitates understanding various issues from multiple "sites", or perspectives. **participant fieldwork:** an element of fieldwork that can involve participating in the daily tasks and observing daily interactions among a particular group. **qualitative research:** research methods that aim to explore, rather than measure, various phenomena, often through forms of observation such as interviews, focus groups, and direct participant observation. **quantitative research:** research methods that involve the generation of statistical data. examples include surveys and censuses. **rapport:** a feeling of affinity, friendship, and responsibility between an anthropologist and an informant. it is often developed through the use of long-term, ethnographic fieldwork. **representation:** the way in which a group of people is depicted in writing or through images. anthropologists are increasingly conscious of the fact that when they write about a group of people, they are constructing particular representations that may have positive or negative long-term effects for a group of people. **salvage anthropology:** an approach to anthropology that arose in the late 1800s when anthropologists witnessed the extinction or assimilation of Indigenous peoples throughout the world. In response, some anthropologists, such as Franz Boas, suggested that anthropologists rapidly document the oral stories, songs, histories, and other traditions of Indigenous peoples before they disappeared. **bands:** a term used by anthropologists to refer to egalitarian units of social organization, found mostly among foragers; these units usually consist of fewer than 100 people. **biomedical model:** also known as *Western medicine, scientific medicine,* or *modern medicine*, the model combines biology with the diagnosis and treatment of illness and views the body as a machine, independent of social context, that must be repaired periodically. **clans:** unilineal descent groups whose members claim descent from a common ancestor. **colonialism:** refers to the acquisition of new territories throughout the world by European powers from 1492 until approximately 1945. colonizers often imposed new forms of politics, economics, and religion upon colonized Indigenous or other cultures, and frequently exploited local populations for their labour. **culture change:** the changes in meanings that a people ascribe to experience and changes in their way of life. **economic development:** the term used to identify an increase in level of technology, and by some, standard of living of a population. others view it as an ideology based on three key assumptions: (1) that economic growth and development is the solution to national as well as global problems; (2) that global economic integration will contribute to solving global ecological and social problems; and (3) that foreign assistance to undeveloped countries will make things better. **factory system:** a system of production characterized by the concentration of labour and machines in specific places It is associated with the Industrial Revolution. **foragers:** a term used by anthropologists to refer to societies that make their livelihood through gathering plants, hunting, or fishing. **Industrial Revolution:** a period of European history, generally identified as occurring in the late eighteenth century, marked by a shift in production from agriculture to industrial goods, urbanization, and the factory system. **International Monetary Fund (IMF):** created as an outcome of the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference to regulate currency transactions among countries. it now makes loans and regulates the economies of lending countries. **interpersonal theory of disease:** a view of disease in which it is assumed that illness is caused by tensions or conflicts in social relations. **irrigation agriculture:** a form of cultivation in which water is used to deliver nutrients to growing plants. **natural selection:** refers to Darwin\'s idea that the survival of different species of organisms is partly contingent upon how well adapted they are to their physical environments. Those with favourable physical traits are more likely to survive to reproduce. **pathogen:** an infectious agent such as a bacteria or a virus that can cause disease. **population density:** the number of people in a given geographic area. **progress:** the idea that human history is the story of a steady advance from a life dependent on the whims of nature to a life of control and domination over natural forces. **"putting out" system:** a means of production, common in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and surviving today, in which a manufacturer or merchant supplies the materials and sometimes the tools to workers, who produce the goods in their own homes. **sedentary:** a mode of livelihood characterized by permanent or semi-permanent settlements. **slash-and-burn or swidden agriculture:** a mode of livelihood in which forests are cleared by burning trees and brush, and crops are planted among the ashes of the cleared ground. **states:** forms of society characterized by a hierarchical ranking of people and centralized political control. **unilineal evolution:** a late-nineteenth-century theory of social evolution which posited that all societies go through a series of standardized stages of change. It ethnocentrically positioned Western societies at the apex of a \"ladder of civilization.\" **vector:** an organism, such as a mosquito, tick, flea, or snail, that can transmit disease to another animal. **World Bank:** one of the institutions created at the 1944 Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, meeting of Allied nations. The World Bank (or the Bank for Reconstruction and Development) functions as a lending institution to nations largely for projects related to economic development. **atheism:** refers to a lack of belief in supernatural forces or beings. **creole:** a term used commonly to refer to the formation of slave societies in the Caribbean in which elements of African and European cultures were merged, blended, or combined into something uniquely Caribbean. **domain of experience:** **key metaphors:** a term to identify metaphors that dominate the meanings that people in a specific culture attribute to their experience. **key scenarios:** dominant stories or myths that portray the values and beliefs of a specific society. **magic:** refers to the manipulation of words or sub- stances to influence spiritual beings for good or evil purposes. **metaphors:** figures of speech in which linguistic expressions are taken from one area of experience and applied to another. **myth:** a story or narrative that portrays the meanings people give to their experience. **revitalization movements:** the term suggested by Anthony EC. Wallace for attempts by a people to construct a more satisfying culture. **rites of passage:** the term coined in 1908 by Arnold van Gennep to refer to the category of rituals that accompany changes in status, such as the transition from boy- hood to manhood, living to dead, or student to graduate. **ritual:** a dramatic rendering or social portrayal of meanings shared by a specific body of people in a way that makes them seem correct and proper. (See also symbolic actions.) **secularism:** refers to the separation of political and eco- nomic realms of society from religion or spirituality **shamanism:** refers to a spiritual belief system whereby spiritual practitioners called "shamans" enter into an altered state of consciousness to seek guidance from spiritual forces. **symbolic actions:** the activities-including ritual, myth, art, dance, and music-that dramatically depict the meanings shared by a specific body of people. **syncretism:** the term given to the combination of old beliefs or religions and new ones (often introduced during colonization) to create a new worldview. **totemism:** the use of a symbol, generally an animal or a plant, as a physical representation for a group, generally a clan. **witchcraft:** refers to the belief that an individual (the witch) has the ability to cause harm to others through the manipulation of powerful substances. **worldview:** an encompassing picture of reality based on shared cultural assumptions about how the world works. People ====== **Michel-Rolph Trouillot:** In 2003, he suggests using "culture" as a noun is too ambiguous. Rather, words such as style, ideology, and predispositions better limit the range covered. **Beth Conklin:** She wrote *Consuming Grief* in 2001 about Wari' cannibalism. **Nancy Scheper-Hughes:** She argues that anthropologists are obligated to be politically committed, etcetera. She advocated for critical cultural relativism and more "womanly-hearted anthropology". **Elizabeth Zechenter:** In 1997, she wrote that avoiding making judgements and tolerating brutality is a form of ethnocentrism. **Stanley Barrett:** He maintains the globalization has increased conflict. **Rosemary Coombe:** She has both law and anthropology degrees; her focus is on the intersection of law, ethics, and culture. **Janet McLaughlin:** Her work overlaps between medical, political ecology, and legal anthropology. **Edward Tylor:** At Oxford in 1883, he held the first formal anthropology position in an academic institution. He wrote *Primitive Culture* in 1871 based entirely on etic data. **Thomas F. McIlwraith:** He was Canada's first anthropological appointment at the University of Toronto in 1925. **Franz Boas:** One of the fathers of sociocultural anthropology. He studied the Kwakwaka'wakw in BC, one of the first instances of anthropological fieldwork. **Bronislaw Malinowski:** One of the fathers of sociocultural anthropology. He accidentally fell into fieldwork study of the Trobriander Islanders during World War I. **Regna Darnell:** She has researched the history of Canadian anthropology. According to her, our uniqueness lies in how we intersect organization and historical context. **Kirian Narayan:** She questioned the simplification of "native" versus "non-native" and suggested that "native" may well be plural rather than singular. **Annette Weiner:** She studied the Trobriand Islanders further, focusing on the women. She holds that wealth, status, and identity all looks different depending on which "native's perspective" is taken. **Mary Leakey:** She discovered evidence of bipedalism from hominid footprints in volcanic ash dating around 3.7 million years ago. **Jane Goodall:** She's known for her study of primates, particularly chimpanzees. **William Labov:** He studied department stores salespeople across Manhattan and the influence of accents. **Pat McGovern:** He specializes in chemical analysis and is known for recreating ancient alcoholic beverages. **Immanuel Kant:** He wrote Anthropology from a *Pragmatic Point of View*, the first time seeing the term 'anthropology' in a public published work. **Eric Wolf:** He called anthropology "the most scientific of the humanities and the most humanistic of the sciences". **Tom Boellstorff:** He's an example of anthropologists treating online platforms like fieldwork. He studied "culture in virtual worlds" and wrote *Coming of Age in Second Life* in 2008. **Jean Briggs:** She was studying the Inuit and made the mistake of visibly showing her anger. **Richard Scaglion:** He studied the Abelam in Papua New Guinea. He stumbled in a few ways, including hunting with the women, the Great Shovel Incident™, and trying to explain physics. **Michael Kearney:** He studied the Santa Catarina Ixtepeji in the valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. He healed a local witch's sister, then had a moment of fear when he thought Gregoria retaliated against him. Questions ========= 1. What are the four subdisciplines of anthropology? 2. What are the unique features of sociocultural anthropology as a subdiscipline? 3. What is culture? 4. How do anthropologists use the concept of culture to explain why human beings differ in their beliefs and values? What are some examples of these differences discussed in the text? 5. What is the difference between ethnocentrism and cultural relativism? 6. What is critical culture relativism, and how might it help us avoid the relativistic fallacy? Use examples from this section to help explain your answer 7. What does it mean to think of culture as a text? How does this approach shape how an anthropologist tries to understand and describe a culture? 8. Describe in detail the circumstances surrounding a typical Balinese cockfight. How does the cockfight help the Balinese comprehend the significance of status for their daily lives? 9. If an anthropologist were to interpret hocket in Canada as a text, what meanings would be most significant, and why? 10. What does the popularity of the happy meal suggest to anthropologists about gender roles, consumption patterns, and environmental practices? 11. What are the three problem-solving skills unique to the discipline of anthropology? 12. Describe the way that anthropological problem-solving skills have been applied to at least two different issue or settings outside of academia. 13. Think about the kinds of classroom spaces you are taking classes in. What other aspects of the classroom setup can you rethink from an anthropological perspective? How might an anthropologist explain your findings? 14. Is it possible to imagine life without systems of meaning to help us make sense of it? What would a life without culture be like? 15. Which of the subfields of applied anthropology do you think has the most potential applications in today\'s globalized world, and why? If you could choose a contemporary social problem to address from the perspective of one of these subfields, what would it be and why? 16. Compare and contrast quantitative and qualitative methodologies. What kinds of questions or topics are best explored with each? 17. What is the difference between the emic and etic perspectives? 18. What are some of the differences between armchair anthropology and participant observation? 19. What was E.B. Tylor\'s definition of culture, and how did it reflect the kinds of research methods he used? 20. Name at least three characteristics of ethnographic fieldwork. 21. Discuss some of the changes to fieldwork that have taken place over the past century. What factors do you think are responsible for some of these changes? 22. What are some of the shortcomings of thinking of the \"native\'s point of view\" as singular rather than plural? 23. What is multi-sited fieldwork, and why might an anthropologist choose to do it? 24. What is culture shock? 25. Using examples from this section, discuss the ways in which making mistakes can help an anthropologist to better understand \"the native\'s point of view.\" 26. What is informed consent in the context of conducting research, and why is it important? 27. Define \"essentialism\" and give examples of essentialist cultural representations. 28. Why are some Samoans and contemporary anthropologists critical of Margaret Mead\'s depictions of Samoan culture in *Coming of Age in Samoa*? 29. What are some of the negative repercussions of Napolean Chagnon\'s depictions of the Yanomamö as fierce and warlike? 30. How do the ethnographic research findings of Bianca Dahl and Homa Hoodfar challenge popular media representations of orphans in Botswana and veiled Muslim women in Canada, respectively? 31. In section 2.1, we discuss participant observation, in which the anthropologist both observes and takes part in daily life in order to understand an emic, or \"native\'s,\" point of view. Is this objective knowledge or subjective knowledge or something in between? List the reasons for your answer. 32. Discuss some of the changes to fieldwork that have taken place over the past century. What factors do you think are responsible for some of these changes? 33. Compare foraging, slash-and-burn (swidden) agriculture, and state societies in terms of their modes of livelihood, population size, amount of labour relative to yield, and types of social and political organization. 34. According to Cohen and Carniero, what is the relationship between population density, modes of livelihood, and social organization? How did Henry Lewis Morgan and Leslie White apply Darwin\'s theories of natural selection and evolution to culture? 35. What did Marshall Sahlins mean when he suggested that foragers were \"the original affluent society,\" and why did he make this argument? 36. What is the difference between the putting-out system and the factory system of textile production? How did the shift from the former to the latter increase inequality in Britain and beyond? Give examples. 37. What was the Trail of Tears (Cherokee Removal)? How was it related to slavery and cotton production in the United States in the eighteenth century? 38. What is colonialism? What role has it played in the rise global wealth inequality? Give examples. 39. What is economic development? What roles have the World Bank and the IMF played in economic development? 40. How might economic development lead to economic and/or cultural devastation? Give at least two detailed examples. 41. Why, and by whom, have the Lubicon Cree been considered \"in the way of progress\"? How have they restructured their community and beliefs in the face of such considerations? 42. What is the biomedical model of health and illness? List and discuss at least three reasons why access to biomedicine has not necessarily increased health for everyone in the world. 43. What is the interpersonal theory of disease? Explain how perceptions and treatments of illness and healing among the Chewa and the Ndembu exemplify this theory. 44. In Chapter 1, we discussed the concept of cultural relativism. How might you apply the idea of cultural relativism to the twin concepts of progress and development? 45. Western environmental activists often point to Indigenous cultures and modes of livelihood as examples of a more environmentally friendly way to live. What are the possible advantages and disadvantages of this approach, both from the perspective of the environmentalists and from that of the Indigenous groups to whom they refer? 46. Given what you have learned about how population, urbanization, agriculture, and technology relate to one another, what predictions might you make about future modes of livelihood and food production? 47. Canadians are starting to take the idea that \"mental health is health\" more seriously. What might we learn about the causes and treatments of poor mental health if we applied the interpersonal theory of disease instead of, or in addition to, a Western medical perspective? 48. Define and discuss the significance of the following terms: worldview, ritual, totemism, animism, and symbolic action. 49. How do the metaphors of eating and hunger effect the ways the Kwakwaka\'wakw (a) socialize their children; (b) think about death and dying; c) understand greed? 50. What is witchcraft? What is magic? 51. How and why do witches in England use tarot cards to interpret their daily lives and those of others? 52. Describe the various \"steps\" in the four-day ritual of the Kwakwaka\'wakw Hamatsa/Cannibal Dance. What does each step symbolize, and how? What lessons does this ritual teach the Hamatsa about the socialization of children? 53. Why are zombies and vampires \"good to think with\"? What issues are being thought about in each case? 54. Describe the \"symbolic efficacy\" of face masks in the Philippines. Why might some people take comfort in the ritual of wearing a face mask during a health crisis? 55. What is a rite of passage? How does medicalized childbirth in North America, as a rite of passage, reflect North American ways of living? 56. What is knowledge according to the Dene Tha, and how does one obtain it? 57. How do Dene Tha view the power dynamics between humans and animals, and humans and the environment in which they live? 58. What is the significance of dreaming for the Dene Tha? 59. A Dutch missionary once said to the Maka of Cameroon, \"Where there is electric light, witchcraft will disappear.\" Why has this proven not to be the case, and what does it have to do with inequality? 60. What is shamanism? How did the Dene Tha meld their shamanistic practices and beliefs with those of Catholicism and Anglicanism? Give examples. 61. Who was Ras Tafari? How did his coronation lead to a new belief system among the poor descendants of slaves in Kingston, Jamaica? 62. Why does Bob Marley, through his music, continue to resonate with oppressed peoples around the globe? 63. What is a revitalization movement? Who was Wokova, and how does the Ghost Dance exemplify the way that a revitalization movement deals with cultural dissatisfaction? 64. What is syncretism? How does Haitian Vodou, as a syncretic belief system, help Haitians cope with and make sense of poverty and hardship? 65. Is secularism the absence of belief, or is it a worldview itself? 66. How were explanations for the 2015 *Charlie Hebdo* shootings in France explained in different ways by the religious and secular perspectives? 67. How might an anthropological perspective change how we look at the *Charlie Hebdo* incident, according to Mayanthi Fernando? 68. If worldview is culturally and socially constructed, can there be such a thing as objective truth? What are the implications of taking a social constructionist approach to reality for the pursuit of knowledge? Is objectivity possible? What obstacles might this present for the anthropological study of culture? 69. Do we need to believe in rituals in order for them to be effective? Explain why or why not. 70. How have the forces and circumstances of globalization shaped belief systems around the world?