ANTH263 Midterm SG - Google Docs PDF

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ANTH263 Midterm : Blackboard, open Thurs March 7 (noon) – Friday March 8 (11:59pm

(Incomplete: week 8) SHORT ANSWER Possibilities! (Also useful for multiple choice preparation.) 1. Briefly define culture. Describe/explain five (5) characteristics of culture. a. Culture: “complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custo capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” (in Kottak:19) b. Characteristics of culture: a. Product of human evolution; symbolic thought; pidgin vs creole (pidgin turned i onto second generation); propensity of language b. Adaptive mechanism (flexibility to live in a variety of environments/change ove c. Preconscious (not so aware of it/automatic) d. Learned: not innate, passed on through socialization, Born w/ capacity for cultu e. Shared f. Change over time, dynamic g. Constitute systems (ie. How they integrate religion and gov't) h. Not totally integrated (they don’t always say and do the same thing) i. Cosmology j. Models of reality k. Each person has a different view/share of it l. Different knowledge of own culture/ we do not know all of our own culture

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2. What are the key features of the anthropological perspective? Describe and give ex features from lectures, readings, or films. Definition: study of human species/immediate ancestors, across time and space, explanations for human societal similarities/differences Comparative: a society or social system cannot be fully understood without comp or systems Relativistic: person's beliefs, values, and practices should be understood based o culture, rather than be judged against the criteria of another Scientific: aims through experiment, observation and deduction to produce explan world Holistic: study of whole of human condition (past, present, future, biology, society Anthropologists share key assumptions: idea that sound conclusions about “hum derived from studying a single population/group– comparative/cross-cultural appr

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3. What are !key terms!? Give examples; discuss anthropological significance of key te

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4. What adaptive strategies have anthropologists identified among humans? Name, d examples from readings or films.

a. Foraging! (Hunting and gathering) i. Collection of nutritionally significant plant resources and the capture of im sources for food ii. *Importance of Gathering iii. Live off the land in bands iv. Mostly kin relations v. Highly mobile vi. Egalitarian vii. Sexual division of labor viii. Practice Band exogamy ix. examples: Ju/’hoansi (!Kung)(film: story of N!ai) South Africa AND Inuit Cultivation is food production, rather than food gathering Three types of cultivation: b. Horticulture i. Small-scale planting and harvesting of food plants using simple tools and ii. Can sustain large groups (ex. Kuikuro, Brazil) iii. Allows for "sedentism! (staying in one place) iv. Leads to rapid soil exhaustion v. Ex. hawaiian islanders, New Guinea tribes c. Agriculture i. More labor intensive than horticulture ii. More complex tools (such as plows) iii. Use of draft animals iv. Domesticated Animals and Farming v. Irrigation & Terracing vi. Greater human labor input than horticulture vii. More land used viii. Intensive ag Allows large populations but degrades environment ix. Leads to crop specialization x. Produces more than horticulture xi. Lower labor costs in long term (Horticulture: Low labor, shifting plot) (Agriculture: labor intensive, permanent plot)

iii. Transhumance (certain group members follow the herds) iv. Traditional pastoralists are found in parts of north & eastern Africa, the M Europe. v. Ex: Himalayan Herders (video), Maasai Lastly... e. Industrialism i. Large scale production, involves factories & mechanization ii. Can be capitalist, socialist, or state-sponsored capitalism iii. Industrialism relies on corporate agriculture iv. In non-industrial societies, labor is given as a social obligation, and frequ v. In capitalist industrial societies, labor is sold 1. Social gap between purchasers of labor & laborers

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Why "don’t" anthropologists call these economic systems? Economists tend to focus on modern nations and capitalist systems (FOCUS ON Economic anthropologists bring a comparative perspective to study of economies globe and over time (history, archaeology) (FOCUS ON INDIVIDUALS)

5. What is a mode of distribution? Identify three modes of distribution; give an example of e reciprocity with redistribution. 3 Modes of distribution: 1. Market principle a. operates in a capitalist economy by governing the distribution of land, lab technology, and capital. b. Items are bought and sold, and rely on the law of supply and demand. 2. Redistribution a. goods and services move towards the center, and are then redistributed. b. depends on a socially recognized hierarchical system with sufficient sanc (Bohannan: 135) c. Example: Cherokee redistributive feasts, part of everyone’s annual harve used to feed needy, travelers, warriors (Kottak: 102) 3. Reciprocity a. an exchange between social equals and is common in egalitarian societi b. exchange of goods between people who are bound in nonmarket, nonhie one another. The exchange does not create the relationship, but rather is gives it content.” (Bohannan 1963: 135 ) c Three degrees of reciprocity:

d. Hxaro exchange among the Ju/’hoansi (Lee, Ch. 8)

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Different exchange principles (modes of distribution) can co-exist within a society

_____________________________________________________________________________ 5. Explain the naming relationship in Ju/’hoansi kinship. Why does Lee describe it as stroke” in their kinship system? (Lee, p. 66) _____________________________________________________________________________ 6. Kottak notes that, despite differences of belief and practice in different societies, “r universal” (196). Describe the common functions of religion across cultures !giving functions from course readings or films!. Explanation (cognitive needs) Establishes and maintains social control through rewards and punishments Cargo cults (Kottak) Offers comfort and physical security at times of crisis (emotional needs) Healing traditions of Ju/’hoansi Social solidarity (communal feelings, communitas) Baptisms Ex. jewish speaker and his video _____________________________________________________________________________________________

Terms and concepts (glossary, Lee: 269 ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

"Hxaro”: traditional system of delayed reciprocal exchange Ju/’hoansi: “genuine people”, the people’s term for themselves Kaross: A leather garment and carrying device worn by women !kia: the trance state of the healers Mongongo: A fruit and nut, the main food of the Dobe Ju/’hoansi n/um, n/um k”au: owner of n/um, a healer n!ore: an area of land held by a Ju/’hoan camp egalitarianism:the doctrine that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportu is generally considered an egalitarian society. "insulting the meat”: a form of complaint discourse. To maintain an egalitarian society and humble, it is customary for Ju/’hoan people to complain about the meat they recieve naming relations (e.g., !kun!a): !kun!a means “old name”, used for someone with the same joking relations: see notes...