Important Figures
The father of American Anthropology.
Who is Franz Boas?
This perspective focuses on understanding cultural phenomena from the viewpoint of the insider, emphasizing the meanings and experiences that individuals within the culture attribute to their beliefs and practices.
What is an emic perspective?
This academic discipline studies the full scope of human diversity, including cultural, social, biological, and historical aspects, through various methods and perspectives.
What is anthropology?
These are the four subfields of Anthropology.
What are biological anthropology, linguistics, cultural anthropology, and archaeology?
This term refers to the methods by which people acquire the food and water they need to survive.
What is subsistence?
His Systema Naturae published in 1735 created four varieties of people that corresponded to the four known continents at the time.
Who is Carl Linnaeus?
This fundamental ethical guideline emphasizes the responsibility of researchers to avoid causing physical, emotional, or psychological damage to their subjects during research and fieldwork.
What is 'do no harm'?
This concept encourages understanding another person’s beliefs and behaviors from their cultural perspective, opposing ethnocentrism.
What is cultural relativism?
This concept encompasses a set of beliefs, practices, and symbols that shape the behaviors and worldview of a particular group or society.
What is culture?
Swidden agriculture, also known as slash-and-burn, is an example of this type of practice, involving the clearing of forest land for cultivation.
What is horticulture?
His first publication in 1854 explained that differences in populations were caused by bad biology and the environment. But by 1857, his Indigenous Races of the Earth publication used scientific racism to support his claims that white Europeans were superior.
Who is Josiah Clark Nott?
This term, coined by Clifford Geertz in 1973, refers to a detailed explanation of a behavior or cultural event, including its context and anthropological interpretation.
What is a thick description?
This method involves comparing and contrasting shared traits and differences among humans across societies, cultures, time, and space.
What is comparison?
This hypothesis posits that the structure of a language influences its speakers' worldview and cognition, suggesting that language shapes thought and perception.
What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?
This subsistence strategy was the primary way of life for the majority of human history.
What is foraging?
He is best known for participant observation.
Who is Bronisław Malinowski?
These written accounts document direct observations made during fieldwork, focusing on sensory experiences such as hearing, tasting, and seeing, while intentionally excluding the researcher's personal feelings and interpretations.
What are field notes?
This characteristic emphasizes that human culture and biology influence and shape one another, affecting aspects such as health, behavior, and social organization.
What is the interrelationship between culture and biology?
This model illustrates that only a small portion of culture is visible above the surface, while the larger, more complex aspects, such as values, beliefs, and social norms, lie beneath the surface, often unseen.
What is the cultural iceberg?
This Pacific Northwest group, known for their sedentary lifestyle and potlatch ceremonies, are considered foraging rule breakers.
Who are the Kwakiutl?
This anthropologist is known for his critical examination of the historical treatment of Native American remains and their cultural significance, as discussed in Skull Wars.
Who is David Hurst Thomas?
This qualitative research method is often used in anthropology to provide an in-depth study of a particular culture or community through immersive fieldwork.
What is ethnography?
This term describes the approach that seeks to understand humanity in its entirety by examining how various aspects of human life, such as culture, language, and biology, interact and influence one another.
What is holism?
This linguist is known for her research on how men and women communicate differently, often highlighting that men use language to assert dominance while women use it to build relationships.
Who is Deborah Tannen?
This term refers to the maximum population that a given area can sustain, depending on its resources and the level of technology available.
What is carrying capacity?