Chapter 1, Anthropology and Human Diversity

1. Chapter 1, Anthropology and Human Diversity Key Terms

2. AnthropologyThe comparative study of human societies and cultures. • Holistic approachIn anthropology, an approach that considers cultures, history, language and biology essential to a complete understanding of human society.

3. Cultural AnthropologyStudy of human behavior that is learned rather than genetically transmitted, and that is typical of groups of people. • SocietyThe set of social relationships amongpeople within a given geographical area, including their status and roles.

4. CultureThe learned behaviors and symbols that allow people to live in groups. Primary means by which humans adapt to their environments. The way of life characteristic of a human society. • Historical ethnographyDescription of the cultural past based on written records, interviews and archaeology.

5. Anthropological linguistics A branch of linguistics concerned with understanding language and its relation to culture. • ArchaeologyFocuses on the reconstruction of past cultures based on their material remains.

6. PrehistoricSocieties for which we have no usable written records. • ArtifactA material remain of a past culture.

7. Urban archaeologyArchaeological investigation of current-day cities. • Cultural resource managementProtection and management of archeological, archival, and architectural resources.

8. Biological Anthropology The study of humankind from a biological perspective. • PaleoanthropologyConcerned with tracing the evolution of humankind in the fossil record.

9. Human Variation Concerned with mapping and explaining physical differences among modern human groups. • PrimateA member of a biological order of mammals that includes human beings, apes, monkeys and prosimians.

10. Applied AnthropologyThe application of anthropology to the solution of human problems. • Forensic Anthropology Study and identification of skeletized or badly decomposed human remains.

11. EthnocentrismThe notion that one’s own culture is more beautiful, rational, and nearer to perfection than any other. • RacismThe belief that some humans are superior because of inherited characteristics.

12. Biopsychological EqualityThe fact that all human groups have the same biological and mental capabilities. • RacismThe belief that some human populations are superior to others because of inherited, genetically transmitted characteristics.

13. RacialismIdeology that claims there are biologically fixed races with different moral, intellectual, and physical characteristics that determine individual aptitudes and that such races can be ranked on a single hierarchy. • Cultural RelativismUnderstanding values and customs in terms of the culture of which they are a part.

14. Emic perspectiveExamining society using concepts, categories, and distinctions that are meaningful to members of that culture. • Etic perspectiveExamining society using concepts, categories, and rules derived from science; an outsider’s perspective which produces analyses that members of the society being studies may not find meaningful.