| Acclimatization | Reversible physical change during an individual's lifetime. See Developmental Adaptation. (Chapter 6)
|
 |
|
|
| Acculturation | The process of culture change, usually selective and partial, and sometimes forced, in one population that has come into contact with another. (Chapters 1, 5)
|
|
|
|
| Achieved status | A status acquired during one's lifetime. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Affine avoidance rules | The cultural stipulations as to which in-law(s) a married person should not speak to or be alone with. (Chapter 4)
|
|
|
|
| Agricultural economy | An economy based on farming in permanent fields with heavy investment of labor, water, storage facilities, and other resources, and usually including domesticated food and draft animals. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Applied anthropology, or public anthropology | Working for or against change through collaboration with a client or community. (Chapter 10)
|
|
|
|
| Artifact | An object that humans have made, altered, or invested with a cultural purpose. ("Using This Book")
|
|
|
|
| Ascribed status | A status given to an individual at birth. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Authority | The right recognized by the culture and granted by the group to exercise power. See Power. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Balanced reciprocity | The more-or-less even exchange of goods and services in the non-market transaction of reciprocity. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Band | In societies without states or other formal organization, a loosely structured and semi-stable group of 25 to 50 people, usually members of related nuclear family households, who reside together and travel together. (Chapters 3, 7)
|
|
|
|
| Biological adaptation | Changes in anatomy or physiology in a population as a response to environmental stimuli. (Chapter 6)
|
|
|
|
| Biological anthropology | The sub-field of anthropology that studies human physical variety, maturation, the primates, environmental adaptation, and human evolution. (Chapter 1)
|
|
|
|
| Biological evolution | Genetic change over generations in a population. (Chapter 6)
|
|
|
|
| Bipedal | Walking on two legs. (Chapter 6)
|
|
|
|
| Boreal (BOR-ee-uhl) | Describing environments with climates creating the northern limits of forest formation but south of arctic environments. (Chapter 6)
|
|
|
|
| Bride service | A duty of the groom to work for his father-in-law for a certain period of time after marriage. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Chiefdom | A form of political organization based on membership in descent groups such as lineages or clans, whose leaders are arranged in a hierarchy of power and authority such that some chiefs have inherited substantial influence over their kinfolk and other chiefs. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Civilization | A complex society supported by intensive food production and organized around large urban centers providing administrative, commercial, artistic, and religious leadership. (Chapter 1)
|
|
|
|
| Clans | A kin group whose members claim descent from mythical beings. See lineage. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Class | A social group in a hierarchy of groups distinguished on the basis of privileges made possible by control over valuable resources, such as wealth. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Collateral | From the holistic perspective, describing the type of link among cultural elements that share a common origin. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Commercialization | The process of assigning a market price to an increasing amount of the goods and services that a people once exchanged outside the market by gifts, barter, and ceremonies (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Connotation, connotative or associated meaning | Meanings associated with a word or phrase in addition to its literal meaning. (Chapter 8)
|
|
|
|
| Consultants, or informants | Individuals who share information about their culture with the anthropologist. ("Using This Book")
|
|
|
|
| Contextual relationship | Related, as parts to a larger whole; in cultural anthropology, relating an act, idea, or event to the broader institution, region, or history of which it is a part. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Corporate lineage | A large, formal social structure based on kinship and collective control of income-producing property. See Lineage. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Corroboration, or triangulation | Approaching a research subject from more than one angle, informant, or type of evidence and reconciling the results for a better rounded or more valid finding. (Chapter 9)
|
|
|
|
| Cosmology (kahs-MAHL-o-gee) | A theory of the formation and structure of the universe. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Cosmopolitanism | Attitudes and behaviors expressive of being a citizen of the world rather than of a specific culture or nation. (Chapter 10)
|
|
|
|
| Cross cousin | The child of one's mother's brother or one's father's sister. See Parallel cousin. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Cross-sectional analysis | Studying culture change by comparing the variation within some population or region at one point in time. (Chapter 5)
|
|
|
|
| Cultural adaptation | Changes in learned behavior and thought processes by a population in response to environmental stimuli. (Chapter 6)
|
|
|
|
| Cultural anthropology | The description and explanation of the similarities and differences in thought and behavior among groups of humans. Also, the interpretation and appreciation of other peoples' ways of life. ("Using This Book")
|
|
|
|
| Cultural consensus modeling | A formal statistical method to estimate an objective, but inaccessible, phenomenon by surveying ten or more informants and comparing their knowledge of that phenomenon. (Chapter 9)
|
|
|
|
| Cultural construct | A conceptual model of reality created and shared by a group. (Chapter 1)
|
|
|
|
| Cultural presuppositions | The background knowledge assumed on the part of speakers and listeners in a communicative act. See Connotation. (Chapter 8)
|
|
|
|
| Cultural relativism | To acknowledge differences in cultural values and standards and treat them as a subject for study rather than as an obstacle to interaction. (Chapter 10)
|
|
|
|
| Culture shock | The dysfunctional psycho-social symptoms of stress from prolonged, constant interaction with another culture. (Chapters 2, 10)
|
|
|
|
| Culture | The learned, shared understandings among a group of people about how to behave and what everything means. (Chapter 1)
|
|
|
|
| Delphi Method | A futures research method in which the goal is to prompt a panel of the culture's "experts" and leaders to think about their problems and opportunities, and about what cultural changes are being made and might be made to respond to them. (Chapter 5)
|
|
|
|
| Development | Directed change intended to bring a society's economy, particularly, but also many other aspects of its culture in line with that of the industrialized nations such as the U.S. or Japan. (Chapter 5)
|
|
|
|
| Developmental adaptation | Irreversible physiological changes in individuals during their lifetime. See Acclimatization. (Chapter 6)
|
|
|
|
| Dialogue | Conversation with representatives of the observed culture with the intent to treat them as research collaborators rather than objects of study and to permit them to speak more for themselves rather than to speak for them by rephrasing, reinterpreting, or explaining them. (Chapter 11)
|
|
|
|
| Diffusion | The borrowing or migration of a cultural practice or idea from one social group to another. (Chapter 4)
|
|
|
|
| Direct diffusion | Diffusion conducted with the intent to introduce new cultural matter to the recipient. (Chapter 5)
|
|
|
|
| Division of labor | The degree of specialization among individuals in the performance of economic tasks. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Dowry | Wealth that is transferred from the bride's family to the groom's family at the time of marriage. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Drift | Long-term gradual cultural change, sometimes not perceived by members of the society.
|
|
|
|
| Dysfunctional | Useless, harmful, or counterproductive. See (Chapter 10)
|
|
|
|
| Ecological economics | The study of the way economic systems and ecosystems influence each other. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Economic anthropology | The study of the way that economic ideas and practices are linked to the rest of a culture. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Economy | The shared ideas and practices involved in the production, distribution, and consumption of needed goods and services in a society. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Egalitarian | Describing a social relationship in which there are few status or authority differences between individuals except generation and gender. See Hierarchical social structure. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Embeddedness | The degree to which a human activity participates simultaneously in more than one cultural institution, such as kinship, politics, religion, or economics. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Emic (EE-mick) | From the term phonemics, taking the participant's perspective, the insider's or cultural participant's view; highlighting that which is significant to the participants in their own terms. See Etic, phonemics. (Chapter 4)
|
|
|
|
| Enculturation | The process of learning a culture (Chapter 1)
|
|
|
|
| Endemic diseases | Diseases constantly present in a population that shape its structure by killing the immature or reducing fertility in adults. (Chapter 6)
|
|
|
|
| Entrée (AHN-tray) | Permission of the authorities and the studied community to enter the scene to conduct research. (Chapter 2)
|
|
|
|
| Ethical relativism | The strong doctrine of relativism that claims that there is no moral benchmark outside of culture by which to judge other cultures. See Cultural relativism. (Chapter 10)
|
|
|
|
| Ethnic flags | The cultural differences that some ethnic group members may intentionally display to distinguish themselves from other groups. (Chapter 1)
|
|
|
|
| Ethnic group | A group within a society that maintains a subculture based on religion, language, common origin, or ancestral traditions. (Chapter 1)
|
|
|
|
| Ethnicity | One's identification with or participation in an ethnic group. (Chapter 1)
|
|
|
|
| Ethnocentrism | Judging another culture solely by the values and standards of one's own culture. The opposite of Cultural relativism (Chapter 10)
|
|
|
|
| Ethnocide | The destruction of a culture, with or without destruction of those who practiced it. (Chapter 5)
|
|
|
|
| Ethnogenesis | The formation of a new culture. (Chapter 5)
|
|
|
|
| Ethnographic present | The cultural anthropologists' practice of always referring to some culture as it existed at a specific time in the past. (Chapter 5)
|
|
|
|
| Ethnography | A written description of a culture, usually a descriptive narrative based upon participant observation. (Chapter 1)
|
|
|
|
| Ethnohistory | The study of the history of a culture over a certain period in time or the reconstruction of a past culture at some point in time. (Chapter 5)
|
|
|
|
| Ethnolinguistics | The study of semantic domains. See Semantic domains. (Chapter 8)
|
|
|
|
| Ethnosemantics | The research method of charting the ways speakers categorize some aspect of life or the world by the meanings of the words in their vocabulary associated with that aspect. See Semantic domain (Chapter 2)
|
|
|
|
| Etic (EH-tick) | From the term phonetics, taking the comparativist's perspective in observing or describing a culture; highlighting that which is interesting from a cross-cultural perspective and discussing it in a developed cross-cultural vocabulary. See Emic, Phonetics. (Chapter 4)
|
|
|
|
| Exogamy (eks-AH-gah-mee) | The cultural preference or requirement to marry someone outside of one's kin group. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Expatriates | Persons residing in a country other than the one of which they are citizens. (Chapter 10)
|
|
|
|
| Extended family household | A household of at least two married couples living together and connected by kinship. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Extended family | A domestic group composed of parents and at least one married child with his or her spouse and children. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Female infanticide | The selective destruction of newborn females. (Chapter 4)
|
|
|
|
| Foraging economy | An economy based upon gathering undomesticated plants and hunting undomesticated animals; sometimes called "hunting and gathering." (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Formal social structure | A social structure with relatively stable and precisely specified statuses and role relationships among them. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Fraternal polyandry | The cultural preference that a group of brothers marry one woman. See polyandry. (Chapter 4)
|
|
|
|
| Genealogy (geen-ee-AH-lo-gee) | The research activity of collecting information and constructing diagrams of kin relationships. The term is also often applied to the resulting kin diagrams. (Chapter 2)
|
|
|
|
| Generalized reciprocity | A charitable gift of goods and services or one that does not expect a return directly linked to it. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Geomancy (GEE-oh-man-see) | The divinatory (fortune-telling) practice of interpreting good luck from the arrangements of objects in the landscape. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Globalization | The change process in which people of the world are drawn into an increasingly dense web of communication, trade and travel. (Chapter 1)
|
|
|
|
| Globalization | The process of linking widely separated peoples into tighter interaction through trade, communications, corporate and bureaucratic structures, and travel. (Chapter 5)
|
|
|
|
| Glocalization, or indigenization | The culture change process undertaken by a group re-shaping, reinterpreting, resisting, or attempting to control the local manifestations of globalization. (Chapter 5)
|
|
|
|
| Going native | For an individual in a cross-cultural situation, disconnecting from one's home or native culture and identifying with the culture of one's hosts. See Reverse ethnocentrism. (Chapter 10)
|
|
|
|
| Headman | The recognized leader of a band; from a cross-cultural comparative perspective, the least powerful type of political leader. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Hierarchical social structure | A social structure in which some members have more status and power than others. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Holism | Cultural anthropology's perspective on ideas and behaviors as interrelated elements best understood when seen in a broader context, within the culture and in relationship to other cultures in its environment (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Horticultural economy | An economy based upon hand-cultivation of crops of domesticated plants; may include some domesticated animals and some foraging. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Household | A group of persons who maintain a domicile, being the place where they sleep and cook. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Humanistic approach to cultural anthropology | Striving to understand, engage with, and sometimes celebrate, defend, evaluate, or protect another way of life rather than to explain it. ("Using This Book")
|
|
|
|
| Hypodescent (HIGH-poh-dee-SENT) | The cultural rule specifying that a child is the same race as the parent of the race of lowest status. (Chapter 1)
|
|
|
|
| Hypotheses | Predictive and empirically testable statements derived from theoretical explanations. See Theory (Chapter 9)
|
|
|
|
| Implicit culture | Cultural aspects or elements of which its participants are not usually aware. (Chapter 5)
|
|
|
|
| Indigenization, (in-di-ji-nah-ZAY-shun), or Glocalization | The culture change process undertaken by a group re-shaping, reinterpreting, resisting, or attempting to control the local manifestations of globalization. (Chapter 5)
|
|
|
|
| Infanticide | The killing of newborns. See Female infanticide. (Chapter 6)
|
|
|
|
| Informants, or consultants | Individuals who share information about their culture with the anthropologist. ("Using This Book")
|
|
|
|
| Inverted ethnocentrism | The attitude that one's culture is inferior to that of one's hosts. See Ethnocentrism. (Chapter 10)
|
|
|
|
| Iteration | Repetition of observation to acquire reliably consistent results, thus increasing confidence in the validity of a finding. (Chapter 9)
|
|
|
|
| Key Informants | The very knowledgeable individuals who have a knack for explaining their own culture and a willingness to share with the fieldworker. (Chapter 2)
|
|
|
|
| Key scenario | Typical events and characters that comprise actions considered culturally correct, important, or effective. (Chapter 8)
|
|
|
|
| Kin term of address | The term one uses when addressing, or speaking to, a kin person. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Kin term of reference | The term one would use to specify another individual's kin relationship to oneself. The term used in answer to the question, "how is that person related to you?" (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Liminal | Marginal, at the boundary, edge, or limit. (Chapter 11)
|
|
|
|
| Lineage | A kin group whose members trace descent from a common ancestor. See clan. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Linear thinking | Reasoning that assumes a simple line of causation, as in "A causes B causes C;" contrasted with systemic thinking (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Literal, or manifest, meaning | The primary or evident meaning, the meaning that results from a faithful translation of the apparent meaning of each element. Contrasted with Connotation or Metaphor (Chapter 8)
|
|
|
|
| Longitudinal (lahn-jih-TOO-dih-nal) study | Repeatedly visiting a society and comparing the resulting ethnographic "snapshots" to reveal trends, losses and gains in the people's practices and ideas. (Chapter 4)
|
|
|
|
| Magic | The belief that impersonal supernatural forces affect the natural world. (Chapter 8)
|
|
|
|
| Magical ritual | Formal symbolic acts intended to influence impersonal supernatural forces and thus have a practical effect. See Ritual. (Chapter 8)
|
|
|
|
| Maladaptive | Conducive to reducing survival chances. See Cultural adaptation (Chapter 10)
|
|
|
|
| Market | A method of distributing goods and services in which some arbitrary medium of exchange—such as copper bars, or bolts of cloth, or "money"—defines the value of a good or service and facilitates its exchange for other things. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Matrilineal clan | A descent group whose members are descendant through the female line and who trace their origins to a mythical ancestor. See Matriliny, (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Matriliny; matrilineal | A rule of descent specifying that children are members of the kin group of their mother, not of their father. (Chapter 2, 4)
|
|
|
|
| Matrilocal | The post-marital residence rule stipulating that couples move in with or beside the bride's kinsmen. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Metaphorical | From the holistic perspective, being the type of link that transfers meaning from one symbol to another. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Metaphors | Words or phrases that extend meanings by suggesting that something is "like" something else. (Chapter 8)
|
|
|
|
| Methodological relativism | The attitude that good scientific method requires keeping moral judgments separate from empirical (factual) claims. See Ethical relativism,Cultural relativism. (Chapter 10)
|
|
|
|
| Metonyms | Words or phrases that transfer meaning by substituting the part to mean the whole. (Chapter 8)
|
|
|
|
| Monogamous, monogamy | The practice of marrying one spouse at a time. (Chapters 3, 4)
|
|
|
|
| Morbidity | The frequency of a disease in a population. (Chapter 6).
|
|
|
|
| Multi-factorial | Caused by more than one factor simultaneously (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Myth | A narrative, often involving supernatural beings, actions, or events, that expresses popular ideas about nature and society. (Chapter 8)
|
|
|
|
| Namesake | A relationship formed by naming a child after another person, usually a kin person outside of the nuclear family. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Natural experiment | A spontaneously arising research situation that permits systematic control of variables not usually possible without intervention by the observer. (Chapter 9)
|
|
|
|
| Naturalistic | As opposed to experimental; an un-manipulated phenomenon, considered the ideal condition for learning about a culture. (Chapter 2)
|
|
|
|
| Negative reciprocity | The cheat or shrewd deal, in which one party to the exchange benefits at the other party's expense; the opposite of generalized reciprocity (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Nuclear family household | A household of only one married couple, with or without their children, and typically no other kin persons. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Nuclear family | A domestic group composed of parents and unmarried children. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Objectivity | Knowledge of reality without distortions caused by individual and cultural background. (Chapter 9)
|
|
|
|
| Ostentatious consumption | Displaying possessions as a method of announcing and acquiring social status. (Chapter 4)
|
|
|
|
| Over-consumption | Acquiring goods and services in quantities and at rates that natural resources are depleted and waste disposal becomes difficult (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Over-determined | An effect for which more factors were involved than were necessary to cause it. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Parallel cousin | The child of one's father's brother or one's mother's sister. See Cross cousin. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Parameters | The statistical characteristics of some population or phenomenon. (Chapter 5)
|
|
|
|
| Paraphrase | A re-statement of meaning that is easier to understand than the original, although usually longer and not as elegant. (Chapter 8)
|
|
|
|
| Participant observation | A research method of joining in the daily life of the studied community as much as possible, to acquire a sense of how things are done, or said, and how the various aspects of life fit together. (Chapter 2)
|
|
|
|
| Patriarchal (pay-tree-ARK-al) | Describing a social organization in which males control the public sphere of life (politics, economics, religion) and often also have legal preference in the private spheres (family, household). (Chapter 4)
|
|
|
|
| Patrilineal primogeniture (pat-rih-LIN-ee-al pry-muh-GEN-ih-ter ) | Inheritance by the firstborn son from the father. See Patriliny. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Patriliny, patrilineal | A rule of descent specifying that children are members of the kin group of their father, not of their mother. (Chapter 2)
|
|
|
|
| Patrilocal | The post-marital residence rule that couples should move in with or beside the groom's father. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Phoneme | A minimal unit of sound assigned meaning by speakers of a language. (Chapter 8)
|
|
|
|
| Phonemics | Identification and analysis of the minimal meaningful sounds in a language (Chapter 4)
|
|
|
|
| Phonetics | Description and categorization of all the sounds made by human languages. (Chapter 4)
|
|
|
|
| Political economy | The study of the way economic behavior and power relationships influence each other (Chapters 3, 7)
|
|
|
|
| Politicization | Shifting power from local and regional social groups to centralized bureaucracies (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Polyandry | The cultural practice permitting a woman to have more than one husband at a time. See fraternal polyandry. (Chapter 4)
|
|
|
|
| Polygyny (pah-LIDJ-in-ee) | The cultural practice permitting a man to have more than one wife at a time. (Chapter 4)
|
|
|
|
| Post-marital residence rule | The cultural stipulation concerning with which kin persons a newly wedded couple should live. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Postpartum sex taboos | Restrictions on intercourse for a certain period of time after giving birth. (Chapter 6)
|
|
|
|
| Power | The ability to influence the ideas and actions of others, to set the agenda for the group, and to control human and other resources, with or without authority. See Authority. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Primates | The biological order that includes monkeys, apes, humans, and prosimians. (Chapter 6)
|
|
|
|
| Processual | From the holistic perspective, the type of link that connects cultural features involved in a culture change process. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Proxemics (prock-SEE-micks) | The research method of analyzing how people use space in communication and social interactions. (Chapter 2)
|
|
|
|
| Public anthropology, or applied anthropology | Working for or against change through collaboration with a client or community. (Chapter 10)
|
|
|
|
| Q-mode analysis | Comparison of cultures by the number of traits that they have in common. (Chapter 4)
|
|
|
|
| Race | Culturally constructed categories used to divide humans into separate groups based upon an arbitrary selection of physical characteristics. (Chapter 1)
|
|
|
|
| Racism | The belief that actual or alleged differences between racial groups indicate the superiority of one of them. (Chapter 1)
|
|
|
|
| Rank | Differences in social status without significant differences in power. See Status. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Rapport (rah-PORE) | A degree of mutual understanding between the ethnographer and the studied community as to who the ethnographer is and what she or he is doing in the community. (Chapter 2)
|
|
|
|
| Reciprocity | Distributing goods and services as gifts or trade rather than in a market exchange. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Redistribution | The pooling of wealth in a focal figure, such as a chief or tax authority, who then disperses the wealth, usually back to the donors. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Reductionism | The process of simplifying a problem to account for only those factors or variables that can be observed or controlled (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Reinterpretation | A culture change process involving borrowing and then changing ideas. See Syncretism. (Chapter 5)
|
|
|
|
| Relativistic perspective | To look upon something without judging it by our own standards. (Chapter 1)
|
|
|
|
| Response effects | Measurable differences in interview data, based upon the characteristics of the speaker, the listener, and the setting. (Chapter 2)
|
|
|
|
| Reverse culture shock | The disorientation and dissociation that the cultural traveler experiences upon returning to the social and cultural scene that is considered "home." See Culture shock. (Chapter 10)
|
|
|
|
| Revitalization movement | A cultural change movement stressing the necessity of a change in adherents' understanding, often led by a charismatic leader claiming the ability to lead the people out of error and into a new relationship with the world. (Chapter 5)
|
|
|
|
| Rite of passage | A ritual event that transforms the participants and confers upon them a new status. See Ritual. (Chapter 10)
|
|
|
|
| Rites of reversal | Rituals featuring inversions of the culturally normal and proper. See Ritual. (Chapter 4)
|
|
|
|
| Ritual | Formal behavior composed of symbolic acts, utterances, and objects that express belief in important truths. (Chapter 8)
|
|
|
|
| R-mode analysis | Comparison of culture traits by identifying the cultures in which they co-exist. (Chapter 4)
|
|
|
|
| Roles | The duties or guidelines for behavior in a specific status and specifications for relationships to other statuses. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Root metaphor | A metaphor that stirs its listeners, appears in multiple contexts, and has profound significance in the society and culture. See metaphor. (Chapter 8)
|
|
|
|
| Scale | The level of analysis selected to investigate a society's or culture's organization (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Scenario | In futures studies, an imagined description of how events will unfold, based upon current trends. (Chapter 5)
|
|
|
|
| Scientific approach to cultural anthropology | Treating information as a test of explanations of cultural phenomena in terms of general principles. ("Using This Book")
|
|
|
|
| Scientific method | The process of linking carefully structured tests of empirically testable propositions, called hypotheses, to broad explanatory generalizations, or theories. (Chapter 9)
|
|
|
|
| Secondary ethnocentrism | Acquiring the prejudices of one's hosts. See Ethnocentrism. (Chapter 10)
|
|
|
|
| Semantic differential | A survey instrument borrowed from psychology and linguistics to analyze quantitatively the connotations of a concept. See Connotation, Semantic domain. (Chapter 10)
|
|
|
|
| Semantic domain | The organization of words into or sets of words with related meanings, revealing the patterns in which its speakers think. See Ethnolinguistics. (Chapter 8)
|
|
|
|
| Semantics | The analysis of meaning in words and sentences. (Chapter 8)
|
|
|
|
| Sexual division of labor | The degree of specialization of men and women in the performance of economic tasks. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Social structure | The more or less stable arrangement of roles and statuses in a social group. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Society | A group of people organized into social relationships to perform certain tasks such as feeding and defending themselves and raising children. (Chapter 1)
|
|
|
|
| Sociolinguistics | The study of how a language expresses and influences social relationships, social action, and structures. (Chapter 8)
|
|
|
|
| Socio-natural | Describing a cultural ecological system in which a human population adapts to a "nature" of its own creation. (Chapter 6)
|
|
|
|
| State | A form of political organization based on a powerful central government, which may not be kin-based but has authority to wield power over most aspects of its members' lives. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Statuses | The positions in the social structure defined in terms of authority, privileges, duties, and sometimes prestige and a title. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Stimulus diffusion | Diffusion when only the idea migrates, not its practitioners, and the recipients build the practice from that idea. (Chapter 5)
|
|
|
|
| Strategy of adaptation | The set of behaviors permitting a species or culture to survive and change in response to environmental stimuli. (Chapter 6)
|
|
|
|
| Subculture | That particular mix of shared understandings held by groups within a larger society. (Chapter 1)
|
|
|
|
| Subjectivity | The interpretation of reality from personal or cultural points of view. (Chapter 9)
|
|
|
|
| Symbol | A sound, object, idea, image, or action to which its users assign an arbitrary meaning. That which is given to mean something else, often quite unrelated to the sound or shape that carries the meaning. (Chapters 1, 8)
|
|
|
|
| Syncretism (SING-kreh-tizm) | A borrowing that rearranges elements and combines them with other features of the culture, perhaps selectively dropping elements and shifting emphasis. See Reinterpretation. (Chapter 5)
|
|
|
|
| Syntax | The study of the arrangement of words in longer expressions such as sentences. (Chapter 8)
|
|
|
|
| System | A phenomenon with mutually influential relationships among its parts. (Chapter 1)
|
|
|
|
| Systemic relationship | A web of feedback interactions among parts in a system. (Chapter 6)
|
|
|
|
| Techno-economic system | The tools and procedures for producing, distributing, and consuming that which the culture defines as its goods and services. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Teknonymy (teck-NON-ih-mee) | Naming an individual by her or his relationship to another kin person, as in "Johnny's mother." (Chapter 8)
|
|
|
|
| Tempocentric | Treating one's historical time period as "normal," or best, or as timeless; failing to conceive how the past or future might differ from the present. See Ethnocentric (Chapter 5)
|
|
|
|
| Temporal | Pertaining to events in time. (Chapter 5)
|
|
|
|
| Thematic | From the holistic perspective, the type of link that connects practices or ideas around a common theme in content, form, or values. (Chapter 3)
|
|
|
|
| Theory | Explanatory generalization. (Chapter 9)
|
|
|
|
| Tribe | A social organization composed of as many as thousands of individuals organized by village residence and membership in large descent groups. See Lineage, Clan. (Chapter 7)
|
|
|
|
| Validity | The effective measurement, prediction, or representation of reality. (Chapter 9)
|
|
|
|
| Values | The shared understandings of what is good and right to do and to be, as well as what is bad and wrong. Cultural standards that define appropriate behavior and goals of life. (Chapters 1, 10)
|
|
|
|
| Worldview | A set of ideas, values, and attitudes about reality. (Chapter 8)
|