Anthropology 101 Test With Complete Solutions (1)

ANTHROPOLOGY 101 TEST WITH COMPLETE SOLUTIONS (1) Ethnocentrism - Answer-Evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one's own culture. judging other cultures using one's own cultural standards ex. judging other countries' diets Familiarizing strategies - Answer-This is when u make the strange familiar. U are learning unfamiliar categories on their own terms. Defamiliarizing Strategies - Answer-This is when u make the familiar things to u unfamiliar. This is unsettling what is taken for granted. This is challenging because u have to give a jolt to deeply engrained patterns. Juxtaposition - Answer-The fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect. This shows how things differ from each other by comparing them. It is a way to make culture visible (in addition to interpretation) something out of place Thin vs Thick descriptions - Answer-A thick description gives enough detail so that someone outside of the culture can understand it. A thin description is just stating facts without meaning or context. the challenge of familiarizing interpretation Particularity - Answer-Distinctive or unique culture trait, pattern, or integration. culture takes a tremendous variety of forms around the world Universal - Answer-Something that exists in every culture. all human societies have culture Four types of Anthro - Answer-Cultural, Linguistic, Archaeological, and Biological. Boasian refrain - Answer-Like causes have like effects, but like effects need not have like effects. Food court musical - Answer-Juxtaposition, the people's regular experience as a food court consumer is being shifted to an audience member. There is juxtaposition because something is disconnected from its topic and connected to another topic. There is also 2 different cultural lives happening at the same time even when they're not. "something seems out of place" Reading Shakespeare in the Bush - Answer-• Shakespeare in the Bush by Laura Bohannan o Summary: -Attempted to retell the story of Hamlet to members of a tribe in West Africa -Found it difficult to translate a classic tale from one language and culture to another *Disproved her belief in the universality of human experience o Relation to ethnocentrism, universals, and particulars: -Ethnocentrism (attitude that own ethnicity/nationality is superior to others) • Laura thinks her interpretation of Hamlet is correct, while the tribesmen believe their interpretation is correct • Laura gets frustrated and cross when the tribesmen impose their reasoning and beliefs; she believes they are misinterpreting the plot, while they believe that they are teaching her the correct ways: o Old man in the hut concludes: "We, who are elders, will instruct you in their true meaning, so that when you return to your own land your elders will see that you have not been sitting in the bush, but among those who know things and who have taught you wisdom" -Particulars: • Hamlet was sad because the mother had remarried shortly after the father died, and it was custom for a widow not to go to the next husband until she has mourned for two years o Wife of the old man tells Laura that two years is too long because a man needs to be there to hoe the farm • Laura tells them that the chief only has one wife in her country o They respond by saying that a chief must have many wives to prepare food and beer for all of the chief's guests -Universals: • Prior to this experience, Laura Bohannan firmly believed in the universality of human experience o Two entirely different cultures with different beliefs/rituals disproves this Culture is Learned - Answer--culture is learned from the people who raise you. from a young age we observe and listen, gaining culture -Enculturation, the process -the process of learning/ being exposed to culture -Something you are brought into at birth -Something that is never ending -You are consistently enculturated Symbolic Culture - Answer--symbols are things that stand for/represent something else. verbal and non verbal. ex "the animal that barks" to english speakers thats a dog, but its also a Hund, chien, pero etc. -suggests an arbitrary element to culture -Symbol- a thing that stands for something else • Very important b/c it suggests an arbitrary element to culture • The thing that stands for something else could even actually stand for something else (it's changeable in this way) Shared culture - Answer--culture applies to a group, it is passed on and showed to other people -suggests an identity -The question of "what shared is" -- is a problem Culture is All-Encompassing - Answer-not high and low culture, everyone has culture. the culture of a trailer park is no less cultural that that of royalty Anthropological definitions of culture ARE NOT based on "Low" and "High" culture -It's not based on a sense of the best that there is to learn and know VS. trash -EX: It's not to say that ballet is any more cultural than Jerry Springer -In other words it doesn't make a distinction between good culture & bad culture, it's just something you study