Anthropology Midterm Study Materials Flashcards

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Holism

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An approach that views culture as a complex, integrated whole where social, biological, linguistic, and material aspects are interconnected. Holism seeks to understand parts of culture in relation to the wider context.

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Cultural Relativism

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The ethical stance of understanding and interpreting a culture on its own terms without judging it by outsiders' standards. It emphasizes context-specific meanings and practices.

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Ethical Relativism

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The idea that moral judgments and values depend on cultural context and that no universal moral truth applies to all societies. It differs from descriptive cultural relativism by making a normative claim about morality.

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Participant Observation

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A fieldwork method where the researcher lives with and takes part in the daily life of the community they study. It combines observation with social participation to gather rich, contextual data.

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Emic Perspective

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An insider's view of a culture focusing on meanings, categories, and explanations used by members themselves. Emic accounts reveal how people within the culture interpret their own behavior.

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Etic Perspective

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An outsider's analytical viewpoint that explains cultural phenomena using concepts and categories from the researcher or cross-cultural framework. Etic analyses aim for comparability and generalization.

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Thick Description

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A detailed account of social action that includes context, intentions, meanings, and the web of significance surrounding an event. It explains not just what happened but why it matters within a culture.

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Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

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A theory proposing that language shapes perception and cognition; the strong form (linguistic determinism) claims language limits thought while the weak form suggests language influences thought. Many scholars accept the weaker version.

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Phoneme

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The smallest unit of sound in a language that can change meaning between words. Phonemes are abstract categories of sounds (e.g., /p/ vs /b/) rather than individual utterances.

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Morpheme

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The smallest unit of meaning in a language, which can be a root, prefix, or suffix. Morphemes combine according to morphological rules to form words and convey grammatical relationships.

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Pidgin

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A simplified, contact language that arises among speakers with no common language, used for basic communication and typically not native to any group. Pidgins often have reduced grammatical complexity.

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Creole

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A fully developed language that emerges when a pidgin becomes nativized and children acquire it as their first language. Creoles exhibit expanded grammar and vocabulary compared to their pidgin origins.

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Imitative Magic

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A form of sympathetic magic based on the principle that ‘like produces like,’ such as using a doll to affect a person symbolically. It contrasts with contagious magic which relies on prior contact.

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Contagious Magic

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The belief that objects once in contact with a person retain a lasting connection and can be used to affect that person (e.g., hair, nails). It operates on the idea of transferred influence.

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Collective Effervescence

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Durkheim’s term for the intense shared emotional experience in rituals that binds group members together and reinforces social cohesion. It highlights the communal power of collective events.

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Thick vs. Thin Description

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Thick description provides contextualized interpretation of actions (meanings and intentions), while thin description merely records observable behavior without deeper interpretation. Thick description seeks cultural understanding.

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Reflexivity

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The practice of critically reflecting on how the researcher’s identity, position, and choices shape knowledge production. Reflexivity acknowledges situated knowledge rather than presumed objectivity.

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Polyvocality

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An approach that presents multiple voices and perspectives from a field site rather than privileging a single authorial narrative. Polyvocality aims to represent diversity and minimize researcher dominance.

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Brideprice vs Dowry

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Brideprice is wealth transferred from the groom’s family to the bride’s family as part of marriage arrangements. Dowry is property or money brought by the bride to her husband’s family; the two reflect different social and economic logics.

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Hegemony

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A concept describing how dominant groups maintain social control through cultural means and ideology rather than only force. Hegemony explains consent to social orders and the role of ideology in sustaining power.