Cultural Anthropology

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Cultural Anthropology by Mind Map: Cultural Anthropology

1. Ch. 6: Ethnicity and Nationalism

1.1. Ethnicity is one of the most powerful identities that humans develop (Guest, 164)

1.2. Definition: Ethnicity - a sense of historical, cultural, and sometimes ancestral connection to a group of peoplenwho are imagined to be distinctfrom those outside the group.

1.2.1. Situational negotiation of identity

1.2.1.1. An individual’s self-identification with a particular group that can shift according to social location.

1.2.2. Assimilation

1.2.2.1. The process through which cultural minorities accept the patterns and norms of the dominant culture and cease to exist as separate groups.

1.2.3. Melting pot

1.2.3.1. A metaphor used to describe the process of immigrant assimilation into U.S. dominant culture.

1.2.4. Diaspora

1.2.4.1. A group of people who live outside their ancestral homeland yet maintain emotional and material ties to home

2. Ch. 7: Gender

2.1. "Human male and female bodies are much more similar than they are different" (Guest, 190)

2.2. Definition: Gender - The expectations of thought and behavior that each culture assigns to people of different sexes

2.2.1. Sex

2.2.1.1. The culturally agreed upon physical differences between male and female, especially biological differences related to human reproduction.

2.2.2. Gender identity

2.2.2.1. Each person’s internal experience and understanding of their own gender

2.2.3. Cultural construction of gender

2.2.3.1. The ways humans learn to perform and recognize behaviors as masculine or feminine within their cultural context

2.2.4. Gender stereotypes

2.2.4.1. Widely held preconceived notions about the attributes of, differences between, and proper roles for men and women in a culture

3. Ch. 8: Sexuality

3.1. Parents, family, friends, doctors, religious communities, sex education classes, the media, and many other individual and institutional actors all play a role in shaping how we imagine and express our sexuality and what those expressions mean to others (Guest, 225)

3.2. Sexuality refers to The complex range of desires, beliefs, and behaviors that are related to erotic physical contact, and the cultural arena within which people debate what kinds of physical desires and behaviors are right, appropriate, and natural.

3.2.1. Sexology

3.2.1.1. A scientific study of sexuality

3.2.2. Jared Diamond

3.2.2.1. Suggested that human sexuality is completely abnormal by the standards of the world’s estimated 8.7 million animal species and 5,400 mammal species.

4. Ch. 9: Kinship, Family and Marriage

4.1. "Through kinship studies, anthropologists examine the deepest and most complicated aspects of our everyday lives—our relationships with the people who are often closest to us, including our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, grandparents, cousins, husbands, wives, partners, and children" (Guest, 250)

4.2. Kinship is the system of meaning and power that cultures create to determine who is related to whom and to define their mutual expectations, rights, and responsibilities

4.2.1. Nuclear family

4.2.1.1. The kinship unit of mother, father, and children

4.2.2. Affinal relationship

4.2.2.1. A kinship relationship established through marriage and/or alliance, not through biology or common descent.

4.2.3. Bridewealth

4.2.3.1. The gift of goods or money from the groom’s family to the bride’s family as part of the marriage process.

4.2.4. Dowry

4.2.4.1. The gift of goods or money from the bride’s family to the groom’s family as part of the marriage process

5. Ch. 10: The Global Economy

5.1. "Today, patterns of distribution and exchange are heavily influenced by economic markets that facilitate the buying and selling of land, natural resources, goods, services, labor, and ideas" (Guest, 287)

5.2. Definition: Economy - a cultural adaptation to the environment—a set of ideas, activities, and technologies that enables a group of humans to use the available land, resources, and labor to satisfy their basic needs and, if organized well, to thrive.

5.2.1. Agriculture

5.2.1.1. An intensive farming strategy for food production involving permanently cultivated land to create a surplus

5.2.2. Redistribution

5.2.2.1. A form of exchange in which accumulated wealth is collected from the members of the group and reallocated in a different pattern

5.2.3. Colonialism

5.2.3.1. The practice by which states extend political, economic and military power beyond their own borders over an extended period of time to secure access to raw materials, cheap labor, and markets in other countries or regions

5.2.4. Industrial Revolution

5.2.4.1. The eighteenth- and nineteenth-century shift from agriculture and artisanal skill craft to machine-based manufacturing

5.2.5. Neocolonialism

5.2.5.1. A continued pattern of unequal economic relations between former colonial states and former colonies despite the formal end of colonial political and military control.

6. Ch. 12: Politics and Power

6.1. "The Greek philosopher Aristotle spoke of humans as political animals. By this he meant that we live with other people in communities through which we strive to organize ourselves to achieve the good life—not as hedonists seeking the maximization of individual pleasure but as a collective partnership (koinonia) seeking the good life, virtue, and beauty through community" (Guest, 365)

6.2. Definition: Power- the ability or potential to bring about change through action or influence—either one’s own or that of a group or institution

6.2.1. Band

6.2.1.1. A small kinship-based group of foragers who hunt and gather for a living over a particular territory.

6.2.2. Chiefdom

6.2.2.1. An autonomous political unit composed of a number of villages or communities under the permanent control of a paramount chief.

6.2.3. State

6.2.3.1. An autonomous regional structure of political, economic, and military rule with a central government authorized to make laws and use force to maintain order andefend its territory.

6.2.4. Militarization

6.2.4.1. The contested social process through which a civil society organizes for the production of military violence

7. Ch. 14: Health, Illness, and the Body

7.1. "Perhaps it is enough to be functionally healthy—not perfectly well, but healthy enough to do what you need to do: get up in the morning, go to school, go to work, reproduce the species" (Gyest, 427)

7.2. WHO: Health includes not merely the absence of disease and infirmity but complete physical, mental, and social well-being

7.2.1. Disease

7.2.1.1. A discrete natural entity that can be clinically identified and treated by a health professional.

7.2.2. Ilness

7.2.2.1. An individual patient’s experience of being unwell

7.2.3. Sickness

7.2.3.1. An individual’s public expression of illness and disease, including social expectations about how one should behave and how others should respond.

7.2.4. Critical medical anthropology

7.2.4.1. An approach to the study of health and illness that analyzes the impact of inequality and stratification within systems of power on individual and group health outcomes.

8. Ch. 1: Anthropology in Global Age

8.1. "Anthropology today retains its core commitment to understanding the richness of human diversity" (Guest, 11)

8.2. Definition: Anthropology - the study of the full scope of human diversity, past and present, and the application of that knowledge to help people of different backgrounds better understand one another.

8.2.1. Cultural Anthropology

8.2.1.1. The study of people’s communities, behaviors, beliefs, and institutions, including how people make meaning as they live, work, and play together.

8.2.2. Ethnocentrism

8.2.2.1. The belief that one’s own culture is the norm and judging other cultures by it.

8.2.3. Holism

8.2.3.1. The anthropological commitment to look at the whole picture of human life, culture, biology, history, and language, across space and time

9. Ch 2: Culture

9.1. "Culture It encompasses people’s entire way of life" (Guest, 35)

9.2. Definition: Culture is a system of knowledge, beliefs, patterns of behavior, artifacts, and institutions that are created, learned, shared, and contested by a group of people.

9.2.1. Enculturation

9.2.1.1. The process of learning culture

9.2.2. Cultural appropriation

9.2.2.1. The unwanted taking of cultural practices or knowledge from one group by another, more dominant group

9.2.3. Hegemony

9.2.3.1. The ability of a dominant group to create consent and agreement within a population without the use or threat of force.

9.2.4. Stratification

9.2.4.1. The uneven distribution of resources and privileges among members of a group or culture.

10. Ch. 3: Fieldwork and Ethnography

10.1. "Learning to ask good questions is key to successful fieldwork" (Guest, 68)

10.2. Definition: Language is a system of communication organized by rules that uses symbols such as words, sounds, and gestures to convey information.

10.2.1. Cultural Relativism

10.2.1.1. The principle that cultural beliefs and practices should be viewed within the context of the specific culture they belong to

10.2.2. Emic

10.2.2.1. An approach to gathering data that investigates how local people think and how they understand the world.

10.2.3. Etic

10.2.3.1. Description of local behavior and beliefs from the anthropologist’s perspective in ways that can be compared across cultures

10.2.4. Anthropologist's Toolkit

10.2.4.1. The tools needed to conduct fieldwork, including information, perspectives, strategies, and even equipment.

11. Ch. 4: Language

11.1. "Languages change and grow, constantly adapting to the needs and circumstances of the people who speak them" (Guest, 98)

11.2. Definition: Language is a system of communication organized by rules that uses symbols such as words, sounds, and gestures to convey information.

11.2.1. Phonemes

11.2.1.1. The smallest units of sound that can make a difference in meaning

11.2.2. Morphemes

11.2.2.1. The smallest units of sound that carry meaning on their own

11.2.3. Kinesics

11.2.3.1. The study of the relationship between body movements and communication

11.2.4. Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

11.2.4.1. The idea that differentlanguages create different ways of thinking

11.2.5. Code-switching

11.2.5.1. Switching back and forth between one linguistic variant and another, or one language and another, depending on the cultural context

12. Ch. 5: Race and Racism

12.1. "Racial categories have no biological basis" (Guest, 129)

12.2. Definition: Race - flawed system of classification, with no biological basis, that uses certain physical characteristics to divide the human population into supposedly discrete groups

12.2.1. Genotype

12.2.1.1. The inherited genetic factors that provide the framework for an organism’s physical form.

12.2.2. Phenotype

12.2.2.1. The physical expression of the genotype

12.2.3. White supremacy

12.2.3.1. The belief that White people are biologically different from and superior to people of other races.

12.2.4. Jim Crow

12.2.4.1. Laws implemented after the U.S. Civil War to enforce segregation legally, particularly in the South, after the end of slavery

12.2.5. Racial ideology

12.2.5.1. Set of popular ideas about race that allows the discriminatory behaviors of individuals and institutions to seem reasonable, rational, and normal

13. Ch. 11: Environment and

13.1. “We are not prepared to die. . . . We are not going to become the first victims of the climate crisis. Instead we are going to do everything to keep our heads above the water” (Guest, 329)

13.2. Definition: Environmental Anthropology: the study of how humans interact with the natural world around them

13.2.1. Anthropocene

13.2.1.1. The current geological era in which human activity is reshaping the planet in permanent ways.

13.2.2. Ecotourism

13.2.2.1. Tours of remote natural environments designed to support local communities and their conservation efforts.

13.2.3. Settler colonialism

13.2.3.1. Displacement and pacification of Indigenous people and expropriation of their lands and resources.

14. Ch. 13: Religion

14.1. "Most definitions of religion are not universal. Instead, they are the creations of Western scholars based on western European ideas of what religion is and how it works" (Guest, 409)

14.2. Definition: Religion - a set of beliefs and rituals based on a vision of how the world ought to be and life ought to be lived, focused on a supernatural power

14.2.1. Saint

14.2.1.1. An individual considered exceptionally close to God who is exalted after death

14.2.2. Ritual

14.2.2.1. An act or series of acts regularly repeated over years or generations that embodies the beliefs of a group of people and creates a sense of continuity and belonging

14.2.3. Rite of passage

14.2.3.1. A category of ritual that enacts a change of status from one life stage to another, either for an individual or for a group

14.2.4. Magic

14.2.4.1. The use of spells, incantations, words, and actions in an attempt to compel supernatural forces to act in certain ways, whether for good or for evil.