Eng 102 Chapter 2 Summary
Ant. 102 Study Guide
Anthropology: the systematic and comparative study of humankind in all its cultural and biological diversity—past, present, and future. In short, anthropology is the study of all things human.
Enculturation: The process of learning ones culture from those around us.
Acculturation: learning from another culture (through the process of diffusion).
Animism: A religious system based on the belief that every living thing possesses a spirit, or soul, that animates it. In this context, “living” things include not only animals and plants, but also such entities as the wind, the waters, the earth, the sky, etc.
Animatism: A religious system from the South Pacific based on the belief in an impersonal force called …show more content…
mana, which all things possess, but in varying degrees. The most powerful people in society are those whom it’s population believe to have the most mana. Believers consider man to be something inherent, not something we can obtain on our own.
Acephalous: a society without a leader.
Achieved status: a social position that is achieved or acquired
Ascribed status: a social position that is assigned at birth
Consanguine: related by blood
Affine: related by marriage
Affluent: having abundance; rich.
Agriculture: Agriculture is the science of growing food crops and rearing animals for farming.
Altruism: the selfless concern for the welfare of others.
Amerind: refers collectively to the Indigenous peoples of the Americas who lived in the Western Hemisphere before European arrival to the continent.
Anthropomorphic: refer to any attribution of human characteristics (or characteristics assumed or believed by some to belong only to humans) to animals or non-living things, phenomena, material states and objects or abstract concepts. Examples include animals and plants and forces of nature such as winds, rain or the sun depicted as creatures with human motivations, and/or the abilities to reason and converse.
Australopithecine: any species in the related genera Australopithecus or Paranthropus. These species occurred in the Plio-Pleistocene era, and were bipedal and dentally similar to humans, but with a brain size not much larger than modern apes, lacking the encephalization characteristics of the genus Homo.
Avunculate: a feature of some societies whereby men have a special role in relation to their sister’s children.
Bride service: the service rendered by the bridegroom to a bride's family as a bride price or part of one (see dowry).
Bride price: an amount of money or property or wealth paid by the groom or his family to the parents of a woman upon the marriage of their daughter to the groom.
Franz Boas: a German-American anthropologist a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology"
Cattle complex: an East African socioeconomic system in which cattle represent social status as well as wealth.
Circumscription: The theory begins with some assumptions. Warfare usually disperses people rather than uniting them. Environmental circumscription occurs when an area of productive agricultural land is surrounded by a less productive area such as the mountains, desert, or sea. More extensive cultivation would bring severely diminishing returns.
Coprolite: fossilized animal dung
Cosmogony, or cosmogony: any theory concerning the coming into existence or origin of the universe, or about how reality came to be. In the specialized context of space science and astronomy, the term refers to theories of creation of (and study of) the Solar System.
Cosmology: the study of the Universe in its totality as it is now (or at least as it can be observed now), and by extension, humanity's place in it.
Parallel cousin: an anthropological term denoting consanguinial kin who are in the same descent group as the subject and are from the parent's same-sexed sibling. A parallel cousin is a first cousin who is the child of the father's brother (paternal uncle's child) or the mother's sister (maternal aunt's child), while a cross cousin is the child of the mother's brother (maternal uncle's child) or of the father's sister (paternal aunt's child).
Cross cousin: the child of one’s mother’s brother or father’s sister.
Cultural relativism: an anthropological approach which posit that all cultures are of equal value and need to be studied from a neutral point of view.
Culture: the sum of all dynamic (continuously changing) learned and shared symbol-based thought and behavior patterns characteristic of human beings.
Desertification: the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas due to various factors: including climatic variations and human activities.[1]
Diffusion: the diffusion of ideas or artifacts from one culture to another is a well-attested and uncontroversial concept of cultural anthropology. For example, the practice of agriculture is widely believed to have diffused from somewhere in the Middle East to all of Eurasia, less than 10,000 years ago. Other established examples of diffusion include the smelting of iron in ancient times, and the use of cars in the 20th century.
Divine ruler: a central political authority, usually paramount chief, sometimes a divine ruler, governs the society at large.
The Dreaming an individual's or group's set of beliefs or spirituality. For instance, an indigenous Australian might say that he or she has Kangaroo Dreaming, or Shark Dreaming, or Honey Ant Dreaming, or any combination of Dreamings pertinent to their "country". Many Indigenous Australians also refer to the Creation time as "The Dreaming". The Dreamtime laid down the patterns of life for the Aboriginal people.
Egalitarian: societies that have no other power structures than those based on gender and age.
Emic/Etic: Emic and etic are terms used by anthropologists and by others in the social and behavioral sciences to refer to two kinds of data concerning human behavior. In particular, they are used in cultural anthropology to refer to kinds of fieldwork done and viewpoints obtained. * An "emic" account is a description of behavior or a belief in terms meaningful (consciously or unconsciously) to the actor; that is, an emic account comes from a person within the culture. Almost anything from within a culture can provide an emic account. * An "etic" account is a description of a behavior or belief by an observer, in terms that can be applied to other cultures; that is, an etic account attempts to be 'culturally neutral'.
Ethnography: This fieldwork is conducted within a particular community of study, usually among people of a culture other than the anthropologist’s own. It is a means of data collection that employs such techniques as “outside” observation (taking an etic perspective), interviewing, and participant observation (working towards an “insider’s,” or emic perspective). The written or videotaped product of anthropological fieldwork is called an ethnography. Thus, we often refer to our fieldwork as ethnographic fieldwork.
Evolutionary psychology: an approach within psychology that examines psychological traits — such as memory, perception, or language — from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify which human psychological traits are evolved adaptations, that is, the functional products of natural selection or sexual selection.
Foraging: looking for food or provisions.
Genitor: A natural father or mother.
Gerontocracy: a form of oligarchical rule in which an entity is ruled by leaders who are significantly older than most of the adult population.
Glottochronology: part of lexicostatistics dealing with the chronological relationship between languages. The idea has been developed by Morris Swadesh under two assumptions: First that there exists a relatively stable "basic vocabulary" (therefore called "Swadesh lists") in all languages of the world, and secondly that any replacements happen in a way analogical to that in radioactive decay in constant percentages per time elapsed.
Hominid: members of the family of humans.
Homo habilis: has often been thought to be the ancestor of the more gracile and sophisticated Homo ergaster, which in turn gave rise to the more human-appearing species, Homo erectus.
Indo-European: Before the 15th century, Europe, and South, Central and Southwest Asia; today worldwide.
Kamehameha II: the second king of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Kinship: people related both by descent and marriage, while usage in biology includes descent and mating.
Lapita: a term applied to an ancient Pacific Ocean archaeological culture, which is believed by many archaeologists to be the common ancestor of several cultures in Polynesia, Micronesia, and some coastal areas of Melanesia.
Levirate marriage: a type of marriage in which the brother of a deceased man is obligated to marry his brother's widow, and the widow is obligated to marry her deceased husband's brother.
The Machiguenga: an indigenous people of the Amazon Basin jungle regions of southeastern Peru, east of Machu Picchu and close to the borders of Bolivia and Brazil. The people are short, but stoutly built, with broad facial features, and very rarely overweight. Their culture is based around the hunter-gatherer concept, and they cultivate swidden agricultural plots. The main crop grown is cassava, and their main protein is a small rodent called paca. During the dry season, they also use fishing to supplement their dietary protein.
Manioc: Cassava also called yucca.
Material Culture: often used by archaeologists as a non-specific way to refer to the artifacts or other concrete things left by past
cultures.
Megalithic: structures made of such large stones, utilizing an interlocking system without the use of mortar or cement.
Midden: a dump for domestic waste
Nanook: In Inuit mythology, Nanook or Nanuq, which is from the Inuit language for polar bear, was the master of bears, meaning he decided if hunters had followed all applicable taboos and if they deserved success in hunting bears.
Nuer: The Nuer (also known as the Nei Ti Naath (roughly meaning original people) are a confederation of tribes located in Southern Sudan and western Ethiopia. Collectively, the Nuer form one of the largest ethnic groups in East Africa. They are a pastoral people who rely on cattle products for almost every aspect of their daily lives.
Oceania: a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific (ethnologically divided into the sub regions of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia) to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago. The term is sometimes used more specifically to denote a continent comprising Australia and proximate islands or biogeographically as a synonym for either the Australasian ecozone (Wallacea and Australasia) or the Pacific ecozone (Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia apart either from New Zealand or from mainland New Guinea).
Paradigm of Cultural Anthropology:
* Anthropology is comparative. * It is comparative synchronically and diachronically. * Ethnography is the short-term goal of data. Ethnology is the long-term goal. * Anthropology and culture are holistic. * A change of one small aspect of a culture will ripple through to the rest of the culture. * Multiple systems and processes for an action. * E.g. there are many reasons why different people don’t do the same action of smoking- health, affordability, cosmetic reasons, etc.
* Emic & Etic * To wholly understand a culture, it must be observed through both an emic and etic perspective. * Case studies must be made using participant observation.
Pastoralism: the branch of agriculture concerned with the raising of livestock. It is animal husbandry: the care, tending and use of animals such as camels, goats, cattle, yaks, llamas, and sheep. It may have a mobile aspect, moving the herds in search of fresh pasture and water.
Pater: distinguish between the man who is socially recognized as father (pater) and the man who is believed to be the physiological parent (genitor)
Protoculture: In physical anthropology, protoculture is the passing of behaviors from one generation to another among non-human primates. These cultures are very rudimentary, and do not exhibit complex cultural technology.
Protostate: Chiefdoms are the earliest examples of large-scale culture. They sometimes are referred to as protostates. In other words, chiefdoms are the precursors of state cultures, of civilization.
Redistribution: a system of economic exchange within a social group intended to alter the distribution of goods. Typically this involves a strong, political centre such as kinship-based leadership, which receives and distributes goods according to culturally specific principles.
Religion: the belief in spirit beings or superhuman forces that directly influence human conduct, typically expressed through symbolic, ritual, and social behavior.
Ancestor Veneration: The practice of venerating deceased ancestors.
Animism: A religious system based on the belief that every living thing possesses a spirit, or soul, that animates it. In this context, “living” things include not only animals and plants, but also such entities as the wind, the waters, the earth, the sky, etc.
Animatism: A religious system from the South Pacific based on the belief in an impersonal force called mana, which all things possess, but in varying degrees. The most powerful people in society are those whom its population believes to have the most mana. Believers consider man to be something inherent, not something we can obtain on our own.
Atheism: A religious system that is not based on the belief in any god or gods. Atheism also is the non-religious (secular) view that no god or gods exist.
Theism: A religious system based on the belief in one or more gods. This religious system tends to be prevalent at the chiefdom and state levels of social organization. Examples of theism include Judaism, Mithraism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
Polytheism: A religious system based on the belief on more than one god, usually many gods. Most likely the earliest form of theism, commonly found in chiefdoms and early state level societies. The collection of gods in a polytheistic society is called a pantheon.
Monotheism: A religious system based on the belief in one god, a supreme being. A comparatively recent form of theism, widespread in contemporary state level societies.
Paganism: A term not used very often in anthropology, because it is ambiguous and not precisely defined. Often used to describe a religious system based on “nature worship.” As best we know, the terms “pagan” and “paganism” did not exist in English prior to the 1600s.
Totemism: A religious belief system, often part of an animistic religious system in clan-oriented societies, that recognizes the apical ancestor (progenitor), or totem, of each clan. Totems might be animals, plants, objects, or places.
Rite of passage: a ritual event that marks a person's progress from one status to another. It is a universal phenomenon, which can show anthropologists what social hierarchies, values and beliefs are important in specific cultures.
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: This states that language is not simply a way of voicing ideas, but is the very thing, which shapes those ideas. One cannot think outside the confines of their language. The result of this process is many different world-views by speakers of different languages.
Savanna: a grassland ecosystem characterized by the trees being sufficiently small or widely spaced so that the canopy does not close.
Shaman: Part-time religious practitioner who manipulates the spirits for divination and curing. Must achieve altered state of consciousness in order to perform his/her function. Everyone may have access to this position. May be elected by the spirits, but must undergo training. Can deal with evil as well as benevolent spirits, but only for good of the community. Functions as priest, prophet, healer, magician, and one who brings good luck.
Sino-Tibetan: languages are a language family comprising, at least, the Chinese and the Tibeto-Burman languages, including some 250 languages of East Asia, Southeast Asia and parts of South Asia. They are second only to the Indo-European languages in terms of the number of native speakers.
Sociobiology is a field of scientific study of behavior based on the assumption that social behavior has resulted from evolution and attempts to explain and examine social behavior within that context. Often considered a branch of biology and sociology, it also draws from ethnology, anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, population genetics, and other disciplines. Within the study of human societies, sociobiology is closely allied to the fields of human behavioral ecology and evolutionary psychology.
Sorcerer. One who deals with evil spirits in order to inflict harm on other individuals. Uses material objects in doing so. One who performs “black” magic.
Subsistence strategies: Ways in which societies transform the material resources of the environment into food, clothing, and shelter.
Symbols: distinctively human.
Tabu/kapu: to prohibit from use; to make holy.
Tapa: a bark cloth made in the islands of the Pacific Ocean.
Taro: a common name for the corms and tubers of several plants in the family Araceae.
Totemism: A religious belief system, often part of an animistic religious system in clan-oriented societies, that recognizes the apical ancestor (progenitor), or totem, of each clan. Totems might be animals, plants, objects, or places.
Trypanosomiasis: Human African trypanosomiasis, transmitted by the tsetse fly infected with Trypanosoma brucei,
Sir Edward B. Tyler: considered by many a founding figure of the science of social anthropology, and his scholarly works are seen as important and lasting contributions to the discipline of Anthropology that was beginning to take shape in the 19th century. Reintroduced Animism.
Umiak: a type of boat used by Eskimo people, both Yupik and Inuit, and was originally found in all coastal areas from Siberia to Greenland
Yanomami Homecoming: Yarima, a Yanomami woman, travels with her American husband, antrhopologist Ken Good, and their three young children deep into the Venezuelan rain forest on a dangerous and emotional voyage back to her birthplace. There are sharp contrasts between Yarima's Yanomami world and her American suburban life. Even though it is her birthplace, the rain forest still carries risks for Yarima, including disease and attack by animals--or humans. But now the stakes have never been higher. Explorer joins them on their dangerous and unprecedented journey back to the Yanomami.
Yanomamö: a large population of indigenous Amerindian people in South America. They reside in the Amazon rainforest, among the hills that line the border between Brazil and Venezuela. Due to the remoteness of their residence, they had remained largely uncontacted by the outside world until the beginning of the 20th century. This allowed them to retain several aspects of their traditional culture and have been a subject of study by modern researchers.
Anthropology: the systematic and comparative study of humankind in all its cultural and biological diversity—past, present, and future. In short, anthropology is the study of all things human.
Enculturation: The process of learning ones culture from those around us.
Acculturation: learning from another culture (through the process of diffusion).
Animism: A religious system based on the belief that every living thing possesses a spirit, or soul, that animates it. In this context, “living” things include not only animals and plants, but also such entities as the wind, the waters, the earth, the sky, etc.
Animatism: A religious system from the South Pacific based on the belief in an impersonal force called …show more content…
mana, which all things possess, but in varying degrees. The most powerful people in society are those whom it’s population believe to have the most mana. Believers consider man to be something inherent, not something we can obtain on our own.
Acephalous: a society without a leader.
Achieved status: a social position that is achieved or acquired
Ascribed status: a social position that is assigned at birth
Consanguine: related by blood
Affine: related by marriage
Affluent: having abundance; rich.
Agriculture: Agriculture is the science of growing food crops and rearing animals for farming.
Altruism: the selfless concern for the welfare of others.
Amerind: refers collectively to the Indigenous peoples of the Americas who lived in the Western Hemisphere before European arrival to the continent.
Anthropomorphic: refer to any attribution of human characteristics (or characteristics assumed or believed by some to belong only to humans) to animals or non-living things, phenomena, material states and objects or abstract concepts. Examples include animals and plants and forces of nature such as winds, rain or the sun depicted as creatures with human motivations, and/or the abilities to reason and converse.
Australopithecine: any species in the related genera Australopithecus or Paranthropus. These species occurred in the Plio-Pleistocene era, and were bipedal and dentally similar to humans, but with a brain size not much larger than modern apes, lacking the encephalization characteristics of the genus Homo.
Avunculate: a feature of some societies whereby men have a special role in relation to their sister’s children.
Bride service: the service rendered by the bridegroom to a bride's family as a bride price or part of one (see dowry).
Bride price: an amount of money or property or wealth paid by the groom or his family to the parents of a woman upon the marriage of their daughter to the groom.
Franz Boas: a German-American anthropologist a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology"
Cattle complex: an East African socioeconomic system in which cattle represent social status as well as wealth.
Circumscription: The theory begins with some assumptions. Warfare usually disperses people rather than uniting them. Environmental circumscription occurs when an area of productive agricultural land is surrounded by a less productive area such as the mountains, desert, or sea. More extensive cultivation would bring severely diminishing returns.
Coprolite: fossilized animal dung
Cosmogony, or cosmogony: any theory concerning the coming into existence or origin of the universe, or about how reality came to be. In the specialized context of space science and astronomy, the term refers to theories of creation of (and study of) the Solar System.
Cosmology: the study of the Universe in its totality as it is now (or at least as it can be observed now), and by extension, humanity's place in it.
Parallel cousin: an anthropological term denoting consanguinial kin who are in the same descent group as the subject and are from the parent's same-sexed sibling. A parallel cousin is a first cousin who is the child of the father's brother (paternal uncle's child) or the mother's sister (maternal aunt's child), while a cross cousin is the child of the mother's brother (maternal uncle's child) or of the father's sister (paternal aunt's child).
Cross cousin: the child of one’s mother’s brother or father’s sister.
Cultural relativism: an anthropological approach which posit that all cultures are of equal value and need to be studied from a neutral point of view.
Culture: the sum of all dynamic (continuously changing) learned and shared symbol-based thought and behavior patterns characteristic of human beings.
Desertification: the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas due to various factors: including climatic variations and human activities.[1]
Diffusion: the diffusion of ideas or artifacts from one culture to another is a well-attested and uncontroversial concept of cultural anthropology. For example, the practice of agriculture is widely believed to have diffused from somewhere in the Middle East to all of Eurasia, less than 10,000 years ago. Other established examples of diffusion include the smelting of iron in ancient times, and the use of cars in the 20th century.
Divine ruler: a central political authority, usually paramount chief, sometimes a divine ruler, governs the society at large.
The Dreaming an individual's or group's set of beliefs or spirituality. For instance, an indigenous Australian might say that he or she has Kangaroo Dreaming, or Shark Dreaming, or Honey Ant Dreaming, or any combination of Dreamings pertinent to their "country". Many Indigenous Australians also refer to the Creation time as "The Dreaming". The Dreamtime laid down the patterns of life for the Aboriginal people.
Egalitarian: societies that have no other power structures than those based on gender and age.
Emic/Etic: Emic and etic are terms used by anthropologists and by others in the social and behavioral sciences to refer to two kinds of data concerning human behavior. In particular, they are used in cultural anthropology to refer to kinds of fieldwork done and viewpoints obtained. * An "emic" account is a description of behavior or a belief in terms meaningful (consciously or unconsciously) to the actor; that is, an emic account comes from a person within the culture. Almost anything from within a culture can provide an emic account. * An "etic" account is a description of a behavior or belief by an observer, in terms that can be applied to other cultures; that is, an etic account attempts to be 'culturally neutral'.
Ethnography: This fieldwork is conducted within a particular community of study, usually among people of a culture other than the anthropologist’s own. It is a means of data collection that employs such techniques as “outside” observation (taking an etic perspective), interviewing, and participant observation (working towards an “insider’s,” or emic perspective). The written or videotaped product of anthropological fieldwork is called an ethnography. Thus, we often refer to our fieldwork as ethnographic fieldwork.
Evolutionary psychology: an approach within psychology that examines psychological traits — such as memory, perception, or language — from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify which human psychological traits are evolved adaptations, that is, the functional products of natural selection or sexual selection.
Foraging: looking for food or provisions.
Genitor: A natural father or mother.
Gerontocracy: a form of oligarchical rule in which an entity is ruled by leaders who are significantly older than most of the adult population.
Glottochronology: part of lexicostatistics dealing with the chronological relationship between languages. The idea has been developed by Morris Swadesh under two assumptions: First that there exists a relatively stable "basic vocabulary" (therefore called "Swadesh lists") in all languages of the world, and secondly that any replacements happen in a way analogical to that in radioactive decay in constant percentages per time elapsed.
Hominid: members of the family of humans.
Homo habilis: has often been thought to be the ancestor of the more gracile and sophisticated Homo ergaster, which in turn gave rise to the more human-appearing species, Homo erectus.
Indo-European: Before the 15th century, Europe, and South, Central and Southwest Asia; today worldwide.
Kamehameha II: the second king of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Kinship: people related both by descent and marriage, while usage in biology includes descent and mating.
Lapita: a term applied to an ancient Pacific Ocean archaeological culture, which is believed by many archaeologists to be the common ancestor of several cultures in Polynesia, Micronesia, and some coastal areas of Melanesia.
Levirate marriage: a type of marriage in which the brother of a deceased man is obligated to marry his brother's widow, and the widow is obligated to marry her deceased husband's brother.
The Machiguenga: an indigenous people of the Amazon Basin jungle regions of southeastern Peru, east of Machu Picchu and close to the borders of Bolivia and Brazil. The people are short, but stoutly built, with broad facial features, and very rarely overweight. Their culture is based around the hunter-gatherer concept, and they cultivate swidden agricultural plots. The main crop grown is cassava, and their main protein is a small rodent called paca. During the dry season, they also use fishing to supplement their dietary protein.
Manioc: Cassava also called yucca.
Material Culture: often used by archaeologists as a non-specific way to refer to the artifacts or other concrete things left by past
cultures.
Megalithic: structures made of such large stones, utilizing an interlocking system without the use of mortar or cement.
Midden: a dump for domestic waste
Nanook: In Inuit mythology, Nanook or Nanuq, which is from the Inuit language for polar bear, was the master of bears, meaning he decided if hunters had followed all applicable taboos and if they deserved success in hunting bears.
Nuer: The Nuer (also known as the Nei Ti Naath (roughly meaning original people) are a confederation of tribes located in Southern Sudan and western Ethiopia. Collectively, the Nuer form one of the largest ethnic groups in East Africa. They are a pastoral people who rely on cattle products for almost every aspect of their daily lives.
Oceania: a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific (ethnologically divided into the sub regions of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia) to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago. The term is sometimes used more specifically to denote a continent comprising Australia and proximate islands or biogeographically as a synonym for either the Australasian ecozone (Wallacea and Australasia) or the Pacific ecozone (Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia apart either from New Zealand or from mainland New Guinea).
Paradigm of Cultural Anthropology:
* Anthropology is comparative. * It is comparative synchronically and diachronically. * Ethnography is the short-term goal of data. Ethnology is the long-term goal. * Anthropology and culture are holistic. * A change of one small aspect of a culture will ripple through to the rest of the culture. * Multiple systems and processes for an action. * E.g. there are many reasons why different people don’t do the same action of smoking- health, affordability, cosmetic reasons, etc.
* Emic & Etic * To wholly understand a culture, it must be observed through both an emic and etic perspective. * Case studies must be made using participant observation.
Pastoralism: the branch of agriculture concerned with the raising of livestock. It is animal husbandry: the care, tending and use of animals such as camels, goats, cattle, yaks, llamas, and sheep. It may have a mobile aspect, moving the herds in search of fresh pasture and water.
Pater: distinguish between the man who is socially recognized as father (pater) and the man who is believed to be the physiological parent (genitor)
Protoculture: In physical anthropology, protoculture is the passing of behaviors from one generation to another among non-human primates. These cultures are very rudimentary, and do not exhibit complex cultural technology.
Protostate: Chiefdoms are the earliest examples of large-scale culture. They sometimes are referred to as protostates. In other words, chiefdoms are the precursors of state cultures, of civilization.
Redistribution: a system of economic exchange within a social group intended to alter the distribution of goods. Typically this involves a strong, political centre such as kinship-based leadership, which receives and distributes goods according to culturally specific principles.
Religion: the belief in spirit beings or superhuman forces that directly influence human conduct, typically expressed through symbolic, ritual, and social behavior.
Ancestor Veneration: The practice of venerating deceased ancestors.
Animism: A religious system based on the belief that every living thing possesses a spirit, or soul, that animates it. In this context, “living” things include not only animals and plants, but also such entities as the wind, the waters, the earth, the sky, etc.
Animatism: A religious system from the South Pacific based on the belief in an impersonal force called mana, which all things possess, but in varying degrees. The most powerful people in society are those whom its population believes to have the most mana. Believers consider man to be something inherent, not something we can obtain on our own.
Atheism: A religious system that is not based on the belief in any god or gods. Atheism also is the non-religious (secular) view that no god or gods exist.
Theism: A religious system based on the belief in one or more gods. This religious system tends to be prevalent at the chiefdom and state levels of social organization. Examples of theism include Judaism, Mithraism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
Polytheism: A religious system based on the belief on more than one god, usually many gods. Most likely the earliest form of theism, commonly found in chiefdoms and early state level societies. The collection of gods in a polytheistic society is called a pantheon.
Monotheism: A religious system based on the belief in one god, a supreme being. A comparatively recent form of theism, widespread in contemporary state level societies.
Paganism: A term not used very often in anthropology, because it is ambiguous and not precisely defined. Often used to describe a religious system based on “nature worship.” As best we know, the terms “pagan” and “paganism” did not exist in English prior to the 1600s.
Totemism: A religious belief system, often part of an animistic religious system in clan-oriented societies, that recognizes the apical ancestor (progenitor), or totem, of each clan. Totems might be animals, plants, objects, or places.
Rite of passage: a ritual event that marks a person's progress from one status to another. It is a universal phenomenon, which can show anthropologists what social hierarchies, values and beliefs are important in specific cultures.
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: This states that language is not simply a way of voicing ideas, but is the very thing, which shapes those ideas. One cannot think outside the confines of their language. The result of this process is many different world-views by speakers of different languages.
Savanna: a grassland ecosystem characterized by the trees being sufficiently small or widely spaced so that the canopy does not close.
Shaman: Part-time religious practitioner who manipulates the spirits for divination and curing. Must achieve altered state of consciousness in order to perform his/her function. Everyone may have access to this position. May be elected by the spirits, but must undergo training. Can deal with evil as well as benevolent spirits, but only for good of the community. Functions as priest, prophet, healer, magician, and one who brings good luck.
Sino-Tibetan: languages are a language family comprising, at least, the Chinese and the Tibeto-Burman languages, including some 250 languages of East Asia, Southeast Asia and parts of South Asia. They are second only to the Indo-European languages in terms of the number of native speakers.
Sociobiology is a field of scientific study of behavior based on the assumption that social behavior has resulted from evolution and attempts to explain and examine social behavior within that context. Often considered a branch of biology and sociology, it also draws from ethnology, anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, population genetics, and other disciplines. Within the study of human societies, sociobiology is closely allied to the fields of human behavioral ecology and evolutionary psychology.
Sorcerer. One who deals with evil spirits in order to inflict harm on other individuals. Uses material objects in doing so. One who performs “black” magic.
Subsistence strategies: Ways in which societies transform the material resources of the environment into food, clothing, and shelter.
Symbols: distinctively human.
Tabu/kapu: to prohibit from use; to make holy.
Tapa: a bark cloth made in the islands of the Pacific Ocean.
Taro: a common name for the corms and tubers of several plants in the family Araceae.
Totemism: A religious belief system, often part of an animistic religious system in clan-oriented societies, that recognizes the apical ancestor (progenitor), or totem, of each clan. Totems might be animals, plants, objects, or places.
Trypanosomiasis: Human African trypanosomiasis, transmitted by the tsetse fly infected with Trypanosoma brucei,
Sir Edward B. Tyler: considered by many a founding figure of the science of social anthropology, and his scholarly works are seen as important and lasting contributions to the discipline of Anthropology that was beginning to take shape in the 19th century. Reintroduced Animism.
Umiak: a type of boat used by Eskimo people, both Yupik and Inuit, and was originally found in all coastal areas from Siberia to Greenland
Yanomami Homecoming: Yarima, a Yanomami woman, travels with her American husband, antrhopologist Ken Good, and their three young children deep into the Venezuelan rain forest on a dangerous and emotional voyage back to her birthplace. There are sharp contrasts between Yarima's Yanomami world and her American suburban life. Even though it is her birthplace, the rain forest still carries risks for Yarima, including disease and attack by animals--or humans. But now the stakes have never been higher. Explorer joins them on their dangerous and unprecedented journey back to the Yanomami.
Yanomamö: a large population of indigenous Amerindian people in South America. They reside in the Amazon rainforest, among the hills that line the border between Brazil and Venezuela. Due to the remoteness of their residence, they had remained largely uncontacted by the outside world until the beginning of the 20th century. This allowed them to retain several aspects of their traditional culture and have been a subject of study by modern researchers.