ANTHRO 101
The notion that there is no single natural, right, or normal way to think and behave
What is cultural relativism?
An interpretive approach to writing focused on cultural meanings
What is thick description?
The idea that cultural traits are patterned in a society
What are cultural logics?
Relationships of power in which some countries control others almost completely
What is colonialism?
This means reducing complex cultures to stereotypes or simplistic ideas
What is essentialism?
The use of anthropological approaches to address real world problems
What is applied anthropology?
A term meaning it is from the insider's view
What is emic?
Attention to how our social positions influence our knowledge and perceptions
What is positionality?
An approach that emphasizes socialization in how individual personalities are formed
The pseudoscientific study of human difference based on categorizing people into distinct cultural groups and ranking those groups in order
What is eugenics?
An idea that some cultures are primitive, critiqued by Trouillot
What is the Savage Slot?
A form of anthropology where anthropologist is a member of the community
What is native anthropology?
An approach to language and ideas as strategic tools of people subject to power
What is discourse?
An approach to cultural analysis that attends to the unique histories of a group
What is historical particularism?
An approach that treats cultures as assemblages of texts
What is interpretive anthropology?
Belief in the singular importance , normality, or centrality of ones ethnocultural group
What is ethnocentrism?
A term about islands in the Pacific Ocean that emphasizes their relationships to each other
An approach to understanding human society that prioritizes human psychology as the basis for cultural beliefs and sociopolitical organization
What is idealist?
These are post-colonial relationships of power that exploit former colonies or similar areas
What is neocolonialism?
The theory that there are universal structures of the human mind that are manifested in cultural traits
What is French structuralism?
An approach to cultural analysis that emphasizes the role of politics and economics in history
What is historical materialism?
The effort to collect cultural ideas and materials because groups are perceived to be close to disappearing
What is salvage anthropology?
The critique of objectivist and universalist knowledge production in favor of subjectivity, positionality, and interpretation
What is postmodernism?
An approach to understanding human society that prioritizes economic processes as the basis for cultural beliefs and sociopolitical organization
What is materialist?
An approach to understanding harm that focuses on structural factors
What is structural violence
An approach that prioritizes people's lived experiences, particularly related to bodies, consciousness, and cognition
What is phenomenology?
An approach to culture as dynamic, focusing on strategies, interests, and improvisations
What is practice theory
The belief that "less fit" social groups and cultural practices would eventually die off due to the evolutionary force of natural selection
What is social Darwinism?
The separation of cultures geographically into binary contrasts, like West and East
What is Orientalism?
A term used to identify resources people have through their relationships with other people
What is social capital?
The internalization of normative assumptions that prop up power structures
What is hegemony
The study of knowledge as a system
What is epistemology?
The theory that some areas are central while others are peripheral due to power and history
What is world systems theory?
The idea that culture depends on what natural resources or forms are available or nearby
What is environmental determinism?
A controversial phrase that describes how anthropology supported colonialism
What is Anthropology as “the child and handmaiden of colonialism”?
The study of signs, symbols, and how meaning is created
What is semiotics?