All Key Terms and Defnnitnsns/Elanaitn – Ctre Themes nn AnthrtEtltgy
Key Terms ChaEter 1
An account of the cultural and social variatons of eo le: Anthro ology tries to account for
the social and cultural variaton in the world. Culture or cultures?
Culture is acquired: Culture is acquired knowledge and ut (or not) into ractce. It is not
natural behaviour; it is learned, conventonal. Culture is the learned behaviours and symbols
that allow eo le to live in grou s. Preliminary conce tualizaton of culture as those abilites,
notons and forms of behaviour ersons have acquired as members of society
Similarites and diferences: Anthro ology is about how diferent eo le can be, but it also
tries to fnd out in what sense it can be said that all humans have something in common. It
oscillates between the universal and the artcular.
Shared and contested: Culture is shared in a artcular grou s of eo le who learned this
culture in the same social setng. .our culture will be contested when you come into contact
with grou s formed in other social setngs, ‘we are normal, they have abnormal habits’,
what you have always seen a normal can be roblematc for eo le from other cultures
Culture is not bounded: Culture is not deterministc, eo le can ‘esca e from their culture’,
culture cannot be collected in a ackage as if it were a thing. There is no neat boundary
Anthro ology is an em irical disci line: Anthro ology is com aratve and em irical; its most
im ortant method of data collecton is feldwork; and is has a truly global focus in that it does
not single out one region, or one kind of society, as being more im ortant than others.
Emic and etc terms: Emic = life as ex erienced and described by the members of a society
Etc = the analytcal descri tons or ex lanatons of the researcher (enabling com arison,
avoid ‘my-tribe syndrome)
Understanding culture ‘from within’: Anthro ologist try to understand the world through the
eyes of the eo le they observe, but they also make use of general terms to com are across
cultural boundaries
Ethnocentrism: utng your own culture in the centre, seeing your own culture as the most
normal culture.
Cultural relatvism: everyone is a roduct of culture, never be hesitant to admit that you are
a roduct of culture.
One of the oldest defnitons of culture (by Edward Tylor): culture, or civilizaton, taken in its
widest ethnogra hic sense, is that com lex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law,
morals, custom, and any other ca abilites and habits acquired by man as a member of
society.
Key Terms ChaEter 4
Humans are social roducts, actng is conditonal: What we think of as our human character
is not inborn; it must be acquired through learning. The truly human in us is rimarily created
through our engagement with the social and cultural world, (feral children).
Culture and society enables humans to engage with the world: Socializaton, the society in
which you grow u teaches you how to act, think and behave in the world you live, how to
engage with it.
1
Key Terms ChaEter 1
An account of the cultural and social variatons of eo le: Anthro ology tries to account for
the social and cultural variaton in the world. Culture or cultures?
Culture is acquired: Culture is acquired knowledge and ut (or not) into ractce. It is not
natural behaviour; it is learned, conventonal. Culture is the learned behaviours and symbols
that allow eo le to live in grou s. Preliminary conce tualizaton of culture as those abilites,
notons and forms of behaviour ersons have acquired as members of society
Similarites and diferences: Anthro ology is about how diferent eo le can be, but it also
tries to fnd out in what sense it can be said that all humans have something in common. It
oscillates between the universal and the artcular.
Shared and contested: Culture is shared in a artcular grou s of eo le who learned this
culture in the same social setng. .our culture will be contested when you come into contact
with grou s formed in other social setngs, ‘we are normal, they have abnormal habits’,
what you have always seen a normal can be roblematc for eo le from other cultures
Culture is not bounded: Culture is not deterministc, eo le can ‘esca e from their culture’,
culture cannot be collected in a ackage as if it were a thing. There is no neat boundary
Anthro ology is an em irical disci line: Anthro ology is com aratve and em irical; its most
im ortant method of data collecton is feldwork; and is has a truly global focus in that it does
not single out one region, or one kind of society, as being more im ortant than others.
Emic and etc terms: Emic = life as ex erienced and described by the members of a society
Etc = the analytcal descri tons or ex lanatons of the researcher (enabling com arison,
avoid ‘my-tribe syndrome)
Understanding culture ‘from within’: Anthro ologist try to understand the world through the
eyes of the eo le they observe, but they also make use of general terms to com are across
cultural boundaries
Ethnocentrism: utng your own culture in the centre, seeing your own culture as the most
normal culture.
Cultural relatvism: everyone is a roduct of culture, never be hesitant to admit that you are
a roduct of culture.
One of the oldest defnitons of culture (by Edward Tylor): culture, or civilizaton, taken in its
widest ethnogra hic sense, is that com lex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law,
morals, custom, and any other ca abilites and habits acquired by man as a member of
society.
Key Terms ChaEter 4
Humans are social roducts, actng is conditonal: What we think of as our human character
is not inborn; it must be acquired through learning. The truly human in us is rimarily created
through our engagement with the social and cultural world, (feral children).
Culture and society enables humans to engage with the world: Socializaton, the society in
which you grow u teaches you how to act, think and behave in the world you live, how to
engage with it.
1
