Anthropology Exam 2 Review PDF

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Professor Erick Rochette...

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2.12.20/2.14/20 Focal Vocabulary  Languages emphasize words important in that culture o Also important to subcultures, specialties  Standard American English o Technological items and occupational specialties o i.e. jargon  Nuer o Cows? Inuit words for seals  Natchiq- seal (or hair seal)  Kiieaaq- male seal in mating season  Tiggafniq-strong smelling bull steal  Qaibutlik- ringed seal  Ugruk-bearded seal Is Language a Prison?  Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis o Language causes people to see the world in a certain way o E.g. Hope Language o E.g. Piraha in Amazon  Problems with causality Video in class about a guy and cat and a tree or somethign Build complex ways Man who killed the cat is the one who fell out of the tree Doesn’t build the same sort of complexity--- recursion

Recursion  Dorothy who met the wicked witch of the west in munchkin land where her wicked with sister was killed, liquidated her with a pail of water” these can all be condensed Does language influence culture? Doublespeak (aka euphemisms) Preemptive strike, sanitation engineer, dehired

Sociolinguistics  Relationship between language and social structure  What can we tell about social relationships from the language people use with eachother

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Focus on variations in language use depending on social situation or context

Code switching/heteroglossia  Influenced by age sed and social status  How do you talk to your aparents roommate?  What do you do at a party/interview

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Cultures with class structures assign different value to certain dialects Accent, grammar, tone, topic, or word choice o New Yawk accents & slang o “southern” accents What is considered “proper” or “superior” linguistically often reflects political or cultural differences

Nonverbal Communication  Kinesics o “body language”  gestures and facial expressions  Does not require language o Learned like language  Highly carriable across cultures o Exceptions: smiles, anger, sorrow, fear o Posture o Touching  Are emotional expressions universal? Trobiand islanders and emotional recognition  Gasping as a sign of threat

Model of Culture

ideology Social organization Economy/technology/population What is the teachers social status?

Social organization  Relationship of members of a society to one another  Cat4egories or identities (statues) that define us and how we relate to each other o Race and ethnicity o Gender o Kinship o Occupation o Age Types of Status  Ascribed o Attatched aat birth, given involuntarily later  Achieved  based (in part) on specific actions, choice, talents, accomplishments Widespread Statuses  Ascribed: o Son daughter o Age o Sex/gender o Race/ethnicity  Achieved: o Occupation o Mother/Father o Race/Ethnicity

2.17.20 – watched a video- video notes 2.19.20 3 Myths of Human biological Race  Racial Groups wre once pure  Skin color = race  Different races= different genes What is a “race” biologically  All three traits are concordant. They are all there or they are not. No in-betweens or blending Skin color differences is obvious- we associate darker skin with Africa Global phenotypic similarities

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Ex. Sri lanka, west Africa, papua new guinea, Andaman islands are all similar skiin tone but different backgrounds

UV Exposure= Key Selective Force

Evolutionary Pressures on Pigmentation Darker Skin o Folate Photolysis (UVB o Neural Tube Defects o Sun Burn and Skin Cancer o (UVA)  Lighter Skin o Vitamin D Production (UVA) o Rickets o Immune System Function The Myth of Race  Race and ethnicity  Race Ethnic group assumed to have biological basis Humans are a Polytypic species  Great deal of physical; diversity  Any two humans are 95-99 percent identical genetically  More variation within a population than between two populations Genes and Aims  Only small portion of genes make us look different  Genetic ancestry tests looking for differences in alleles Clinal Variation  Variation not distributed along continental boundaries 2.21 Genetic Ancestry is Continuous Genes are not a good proxy for race  Race is a cultural construct but race becomes biology Race Is self-reported  But we usually assign other people into race categories Crucial to Understand  White is not static, monolithic, or even a good description  Irish, Americq, skin color

No Universal Classification of Race Exists  Brazillian Racial Classification o 500 racial labels  Fluid/can change  Describes physical variations  Environmental influences  Sunlight/humidity  Siblings could be different races  Socioeconomic status Race does NOT equal Ethnicity Nationality does NOT equal Race Nationality does NOT equal Ethnicity

2.26.19 Ethnic Identity you and me  Interaction and differentiation o Where groups of different people have interacted, “ethnicity” has always existed o Differences visible archaeologically Defining Ethnicity  Defining ethnicity is tricky  Ethnic groups; share beliefs, values, habits, customs & norms that define them  Ethnicity: based on in-group similarities and between-group differences o Ex. Language, religion, historical experience, geographic isolation, kinship, or race Keep in Mind that…  Ethnicity is seld-reported and thus socially constructed  Self-identification, perception, & attitudes of others  Ethnicity is important to “us” Ethnicity is ACTIVE  No one is passively “ethnic”  Physical, behavioral, and linguistic cues  Bolivian President- Evo Morales- chose certain dress for the audience that he knew he was speaking to  Code-switching: switch between different languages depending on who you are talking to  Language provides deliberate and active clues about a person’s background What about American ethnicity?  “I am ethnically American”  America = diversity  Do we all share the same beliefs, values, habits, customs, language, religion?

Ethnogenesis  “new” identities in changing circumstance  Diasporic Communities Rwandan Genocide  Between April and June 1994, ca. 800k Tutsis were killed in the span of 100 days  7 million people, 85% Hutu A Colonial Creation  Rwanda—19th Century o Twa—hunter-gathers o Tutsi- pastoralists o Hutu- agriculturalists  Class, not ethnic distinctions  Intermarriage  180- Germany claims Rwanda and Burundi o Reinforce distinctions and favor tutsi  1923- Belgium continues favoring tutsi  1930s- require ID cards o 10+ cattle= Tutsi  1956- Hutu “uprising”  1962- Rwandan independence Nationalism  Imagined communities (Anderson 1983)  Nation-State o Political entity w/ shared sense of Culture, ancestry and density  Nationalism- merging of ethnic identity with creation/maintenance of nation-state 55 officially recognized ethnic minority groups in China Sex=Etic Category  Physical Differences o Genetics, hormones, genitalia, gonads, reproductive organs  Biological “fact” observable o Male(X,Y) o Female(X,X) o Intersex Caster Semenya- runner with extra testosterone Sexual Dimorphism

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Beyond primary and secondary characteristics o Height/weight o Facial characteristics o Hip/waist ratio

Gender= emic category  Social/Cultural construct o Interpretation of sex  How sexes perceived and expected to behave  Caries culturally Gender Stereotypes  Oversimplified ideas of characteristics of males and females o Present in most societies  Learned by gender socialization Third Genders and Gender Variations  Many cultures have cultures categories/terms for individuals that do not match a binary gender categorization  Not same as sexual orientation or intersex Gender Roles  What men and women expected to do- found in ALL cultures  Division of labor—Why?  Account for cultural factors  Public/Private Dichotomy Gender Stratification  Unequal distribution of socially valuable rewards between genders/sexes o “Status”, prestige, power, wealth, influence  Women sometimes excluded from financial decisions, even over their own labor  Income inequity b/w sexes among all races  E.g.- white males made 25% more than white females Gender Stratification and Subsistence  Roughly equal contributions to subsistence in no-industrial economies – decreased gender stratification  Gender stratification lower when domestic and public spheres are not clearly distinguished  Women are gathers and men are hunters

Low Gender Stratification: Food Foragers

 Public- domestic least separate  Hierarchy least marked  reliant on wild food resources  Spheres of influence of men & women overleap the most  Agata Woman Hunting  indigenous group in the Philippines where women are responsible for providing food for the family Women and Kids hunting with snares and nets?  Faceless heads of figurines that depict Mbuti (Congo)  Hunting done by nets 

Hadza (Tanzania) Diet  More calories from women’s activities  Gathering of wild plant foods Gender Inequality and Agriculture  Switch to agriculture o Increased gender inequality?  Assumption of womens declining status?

Women are Primary Cultivators Men are Primary Cultivators Equal contributions to cultivation

Horticulture (typically part-time) 50

Agriculture (typically full-time) 15

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Matrilineal and Matrilocal Societies  Female Status. – relatively high  Economic power form inheritance  Matrilineages typically choose male leaders...