| adaptation | The process by which organisms cope with environmental stresses.
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| anthropology | The study of the human species and its immediate ancestors.
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| applied anthropology | The application of anthropological data, perspectives, theory, and methods to identify, assess, and solve contemporary social problems.
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| archaeological anthropology | The study of human behavior and cultural patterns and processes through the culture's material remains.
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| biological anthropology | The study of human biological variation in time and space; includes evolution, genetics, growth and development, and primatology.
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| complex societies | Nations; large and populous, with social stratification and central governments.
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| cultural anthropology | The study of human society and culture; describes, analyzes, interprets, and explains social and cultural similarities and differences.
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| cultural consultants | Subjects in ethnographic research; people the ethnographer gets to know in the field, who teach him or her about their culture.
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| culture | Distinctly human; transmitted through learning; traditions and customs that govern behavior and beliefs.
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| emic | The research strategy that focuses on native explanations and criteria of significance.
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| ethnography | Anthropological field work in a particular culture.
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| ethnology | Cross-cultural comparison; the comparative study of ethnographic data, of society, and of culture.
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| etic | The research strategy that emphasizes the observer's rather than the natives' explanations, categories, and criteria of significance.
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| genealogical method | Procedures by which ethnographers discover and record connections of kinship, descent, and marriage, using diagrams and symbols.
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| general anthropology | The field of anthropology as a whole, consisting of cultural, archaeological, biological, and linguistic anthropology.
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| holistic | Interested in the whole of the human condition: past, present, and future; biology, society, language, and culture.
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| hominids | The zoological family that includes fossil and living humans.
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| interview schedule | Ethnographic tool for structuring a formal interview. A prepared form (usually printed or mimeographed) that guides interviews with households or individuals being compared systematically. Contrasts with a questionnaire because the researcher has personal contact with the local people and records their answers.
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| key cultural consultant | Person who is an expert on a particular aspect of native life.
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| life history | Of a key consultant or narrator; provides a personal cultural portrait of existence or change in a culture.
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| linguistic anthropology | The descriptive, comparative, and historical study of language and of linguistic similarities and differences in time, space, and society.
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| longitudinal research | Long-term study of a community, region, society, culture, or other unit, usually based on repeated visits.
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| participant observation | An ethnographic technique that involves taking part in the events one is observing, describing, and analyzing.
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| physical anthropology | See biological anthropology.
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| random sample | A sample in which all members of the population have an equal statistical chance of being included.
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| sample | A smaller study group chosen to represent a larger population.
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| society | Organized life in groups; typical of humans and other animals.
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| survey research | Characteristic research procedure among social scientists other than anthropologists. Studies society through sampling, statistical analysis, and impersonal data collection.
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| variables | Attributes (e.g., sex, age, height, weight) that differ from one person or case to the next.
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