Anthropology Midterm notes PDF

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Midterm notes for ANTA02...

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[Anthropology A02] Midterm study guide for key concepts

Armchair anthropology (lecture) ● Refers to the late 19th century and early 20th century scholars

coming to conclusions without going through the usual anthropology motions--fieldwork or labwork. This lead to some inappropriate conclusions about race and racism. ○

In a modern context, "arm-chair" anthropology refers to anyone making anthropological assessments without doing the legwork.

Participant observation ● Research technique where gaining entrance and social

acceptance into a foreign culture/group allowing comprehensive understanding of the internal structure of the society

Ethnography ● The recording and analysis of a culture/society, usually based on

participant-observation, resulting in written account of people/place/institution ○

Used for both the actual fieldwork during which the anthropologist collects material, and the subsequent text – an ethnography

“othering”, “exoticizing” (lecture) ● The process of marginalizing minorities by defining them in

relationship to the majority, which is assumed to be the norm ○ ○

(ie: the natural order) Treating someone different because they aren't like you

4 (or 5) fields of anthropology (lecture) ● Archaeology ○

(Material culture & artifacts)

● Biological / Evolutionary ○

(population change / disease / migrations)

● Linguistic ○

(verbal + non verbal communication)

● Socio-cultural ○

(society + culture)

● (Medical anthropology)

“Denaturalizing” something (lecture) ● Makes behaviour seem less “natural” than it actually is ○

to make unnatural

Ethnocentrism (lecture) ● The often implicit idea that your culture or group or lifestyle is the

center of everything (your way is the right way) ○

Entails limited tolerance of other cultures

Cultural relativism (lecture) ● The idea is not to judge the action outright, but instead to

understand it based on the culture in which it occurs. In order to truly understand a cultural practice, you must also understand the broader context within which it fits. ○

To an extreme, can sound like you’re excusing violations of human rights in the name of respecting culture → moral relativism

Moral relativism (lecture) ● When you insist that all moral/ethical positions are equally valid

and cannot therefore be judged

Defining “culture” (lecture) ● the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial,

religious, or social group. Also : the characteristic features of everyday existence (such as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time

Emic/etic (lecture) ● Anthros seek to capture the “emic” perspective while retaining their

capacity to describe things from the “etic” perspective (balance) ○ ○

Emic: The insider, subjective view Etic: The outsider’s view

Metalanguage, metalinguistic commentary (Jones & Schieffelin) ● The ability to think about language, to be aware of how language

works. Also the relationship between language and other cultural factors

○

“metalinguistic commentary” is commentary about how language works, that reflects a self-conscious awareness of language

Language prescriptivism (J&S) ● The attitude or belief that one variety of a language is superior to

others and should be promoted as such

Language registers (J&S) ● The level of formality with which you speak.

Diglossia (J&S) ● A situation in which two languages are used by the same

community ○

The ability to switch between two languages

Codeswitching (J&S) ● When you switch between one “register” (way of speaking) to

another ○ ○

Young people might code switch between formal / informal registers Often accused of being inauthentic

Emotional force (Rosaldo) ● At times, you have to feel something yourself in order to truly

understand it ○

Some things matter more emotionally than others — and you can’t always describe this in purely logical (or symbolic/economic) terms

Ethnographer as a positioned subject (Rosaldo) ● You have a position – we ask you to use the first person in writing

b/c you are recognizing that you don’t know what the person is thinking you try to use thick descriptions ● Anthropologist started writing differently after Rosaldo essay – from their own perspective (writing about mistakes) – giving information about their own position ● How anthros affect the people we research

The cultural “logic” or rationale of a practice (Rosaldo) ● Instead of thinking of culture as stable meaningful set, at every

cultural practice there are many different roads (ritual, legal, emotional, symbolic)

○

Cultural isn’t stable system, culture brings together different perspective. Culture is forever changing

Thick description (Rosaldo, lecture) ● The detailed account of field experiences in which the researcher

makes explicit the patterns of cultural/social relationships and puts them in context ○

Necessary to avoid attributing own assumptions, feelings, rationales, etc,

Ryles’ wink (lecture) ● "rapidly raising and lowering their right eyelid" could be a nervous

twitch or a deliberate wink ○

depends on the context, the aims of the person performing the action, and how these were understood by others.

“Symbolic depth” to feelings (lecture/Rosaldo) ● We shouldn't assume a symbolic depth to cultural practices ○

The kinds of feelings one experiences on learning.

Hydraulic model of emotions (Dahl) ● Emotional distress, if not expressed, gets stored and can create pressure in the system ○

Therefore 'venting' emotions should decrease tension and consequently the negative psychological experience and symptoms.

Emotional economy (Dahl) ● Thinking about how emotions are prompted, felt, experienced, expressed, and circulated ● Emotions can be thought about as objects that are constituted by and animated through social relations (following Mauss) ● Bound up with material economies

Invention of “orphans” in Botswana (lecture) ●

The word orphans (ie; parentless) did not exist in the language. ○

New words created, however it has the old word’s implication (also kinless)

Oktak in mejatoto (Rudiak-Gould) ● Marshallese translation of English ‘climate change’ that has stuck

○

Mejatoto is not so much ‘climate/weather’ as ‘environment’ in the widest possible sense, or ‘cosmos’: the whole scheme of things, including both what Westerners would call nature and what Westerners would call culture.

Promiscuous corroboration (R-G) ● The conceptual conflation of nature and culture inherent means

that almost any change gives evidence in favor of scientists ○

Locals able to talk/be concerned about the notion that the average temperature, precipitation, and so forth have changed over the decades.

Fortuitous mistranslation (R-G) ● An accidental translational distortion of a concept that ends up

easing rather than impeding its importation into another culture.

Climate misogyny (lecture) ● Connections between denialism and right wing populism ○

To promote the message that any woman who voices an opinion on the climate crisis is “too stupid to know what she’s talking about.”

Climate justice / injustice (lecture) ● Justice: ○

●

We are voices for understanding and vocalizing how climate change is affecting (and will continue to affect) underrepresented people worldwide

Injustice: ○

The lowest polluters (“most innocent”) are often the most marginalized people (“Global South”), who are the most likely to be disproportionately affected by climate catastrophes

“Consensus gap” on climate (between media, scientists, and the public) (lecture) ● The difference between expected scientists agreement with the view that humans are causing global warming ○ 97% consensus among scientists publishing in the peer-reviewed literature ○ 50% represented in the media (showing both sides equally) ○ General public believe consensus is lower than it really is

Climate skeptic media, why they exist (lecture) ● Government does not control the media ○ ○ ○

Journalistic conventions around “balance” ■ Must have 50/50 on either side Rupert Murdoch’s legacy (fox news, etc) Lobbyists exploiting “balance” (showing more of their side)

4 forms of climate denial (lecture) ● “Organised”: ○

e.g: Heartland Institute in the USA, lobby groups

● "Party Political”: ○

Typically conservative, not always

● "Response denial": ○

e.g: Canada declares climate emergency, expands oil pipeline next day

● “Everyday denial”: ○

When people act as though as they unaware of climate change, and, for example, fly several times a year to foreign countries

“grammar” of a culture (Fox) ● Using linguistic concepts as metaphors for cultural ones ○

Most people obey the unwritten rules of their society instinctively, without being conscious of doing so

“ethnographic dazzle” (Fox) ● Blindness to underlying similarities between groups and cultures

b/c one is dazzled by the highly visible surface differences

“rules” (Fox) ● A fact, or the statement of a fact, which holds generally good; the

normal or usual state of things ○

A social rule – by whatever definition – that can be broken

Two sides of the same coin (Fox) ●

When two things that seem different are actually similar ○

Inhibited politeness and loud obnoxiousness in english culture. ■ Reflects social dis-ease

Cultural “reflexes” (Fox) ● “Knee jerk reaction” ○ ○ ○

Humour Moderation Hypocrisy

Class system in England, class aspirations, class anxiety (Fox) ● Inherited - not solely based on

wealth ● Class anxiety in upper and lower middle class

○

more class conscious (at borders)

3 emotions rule (Fox) ●

Men can only express 3 emotions ○

Anger, pride (elation), surprise (all involving shouting and swearing)

Social dis-ease (Fox) ● It is our lack of ease and incompetence in social interaction ○

Our embarrassment, insularity, awkwardness, perverse obliqueness, fear of intimacy and general inability to engage in a normal and straightforward fashion with other human beings.

Irony, understatement (Fox) ● Saying the opposite of what you mean, ○ ○

Acting as though an action isn’t as important as it really is. When something is the opposite of what you expect

“ironic gnome rule” (Fox) ● Owner’s response to asking about a gnome tells more about a

person’s class then the object itself. ○

Middle class will insist it is ironic, lower and upper do not care

“importance of not being earnest rule” (Fox) ● Seriousness is okay, solemnity is not ○

Can be sincere, not earnest ■ Must not take yourself too seriously

Eeyorishness (Fox) ● The british tendency to complain ●

Pessimism/fatalism

○ ○

��

Socially therapeutic- facilitator of social interaction and bonding Enjoyable - humourous mock-moaning

male bonding talk (Fox) ● One-downmanship ● Rules of politeness predominate until the breaking point ● Subtle class commentary ○

(a bit “chavvy”)

● Hooliganism

“U and Non-U rule” (Fox) ● Words that signal class (sometimes counterintuitive) ○ ○

Middle classes prefer "fancy" or fashionable words, in attempts to make themselves sound more refined ("posher than posh") Upper classes stick to the same plain and traditional words that the working classes also use ■ Confident in the security of their social position, they have no need to seek to display refinement

no-name rule and guessing game rule (Fox) ● People can not introduce with their name (or ask a stranger’s

name). Have to guess stranger’s job.

Critiques of Fox’s book (lecture) ● Methods: ○

May not be “classically” anthropological

● Reflexivity overdose? ○

Tone of writing

● Overlooks key issues ○

Race, immigration, other religions

● Nuance versus generalizations ○

Did she just fall back into the stereotypes?

● Rosy portrait ○

upper-middle-class bias...