Some Basic Anthropological Terms and Concepts for ANT 314

Ronald D. Lippi

I. Levels of Sociocultural Complexity

Many anthropologists classify societies on the basis of their size, internal complexity, and presence or absence of certain kinds of institutions. The four basic levels are the band , tribe , chiefdom and state (or civilization).

While it is true that the earliest prehistoric societies were bands and that tribes, chiefdoms and states often evolved sequentially from those small societies, there is no implication that bands are anyway inferior to tribes or whatever. Nor is it necessarily true that tribes always evolve into chiefdoms; it is quite possible, for example, for a tribe to evolve into bands. Evolution is not unidirectional and does not imply progress or advancement. Keep in mind also that these four types are some- what arbitrary and not every society can be easily pigeonholed.

You will receive a separate handout listing some of the characteristics of these four categories of sociocultural organization.

II. Comparative Linguistics

This is the study of common origins of languages which are similar to each other. Languages which have similar sounds, words and syntax are assumed to be related to each other by having developed from the same ancestral language (called a proto-language). For example, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and several other languages are quite similar to each other because they all evolved from Latin. Together they form a language family, which in this case is called the Romance family (after ancient Rome where Latin was spoken). Language families in turn can be grouped into larger classes, which in turn can be grouped into even larger classes, etc. The largest such classes linguists generally agree upon are known by different names, but we will refer to them as phyla (singular: phylum). Most comparative linguists recognize approximately 18-20 language phyla in the world. If different nations speak related languages, it can usually be safely assumed that those peoples formed a single nation speaking one language in the past. There are computer printouts and maps of the world's language phyla in the Anthropology Lab.

Glottochronology is a linguistic method which allows one to estimate how much time has passed since two related languageswere a single proto-language. It is based on the assumption, for which there is some fairly good historical evidence, that core words of any vocabulary change through time at a uniform rate. If one can compare the core vocabulary of two related languages and count the number of cognates (words that are similar to each other in different languages), one can then plug this value into a mathematical formula and estimate how many millenia or centuries have elapsed since two languages diverged.

III. Kinship

A. Descent Rules

There are 4 fundamental rules of reckoning descent. These rules are more social than biological. Reckoning descent on only one side does not mean that one has disowned relatives on the other side. Descent establishes responsibilities and expectations such as inheritance, childrearing, disciplining, ceremonial participation, etc.

1. bilateral: descent reckoned equally on both mother's and

father's sides

2. ambilineal: descent reckoning switches from male to

female line through the generations; very rare and

quite arbitrary system of reckoning kinship

3. patrilineal: descent reckoned exclusively on the father's

side and through males each generation

4. matrilineal: descent reckoned exclusively on the mother's

side and through females each generation

B. Descent Groups

Bilateral descent defines a kindred , which combines all of one's mother's and father's kin into a big amorphous group. All the other descent rules result in ancestor-oriented descent groups, which can be of two kinds:

1. lineage: members are related to each other through a

line of descent and have a common ancestor

2. clan: a lineage which extends indefinitely into the past;

clan members claim to have a common, distant ancestor

but cannot show how they are related to other members

Clan membership can be proven, not through a precise genealogy, but rather by sharing a clan name or, in the case of most Native American clans, having a shared totem. Totemic clans identify themselves with a particular animal (or perhaps a plant or natural phenomenon), from which they believe they originated or with which they have a special mystical relationship.

Lineages and clans can be further classified according to the descent rule in practice:

Ambilineal: cognatic lineage/cognatic clan

Patrilineal: patrilineage/patriclan

Matrilineal: matrilineage/matriclan

C. Larger Kinship Groupings

Clans are often grouped together into phratries . There must be at least three phratries in a society for the term to be applied. If there are only two such groupings of clans, they are referred to as moieties . A moiety divides a society into two halves. Moieties may consist of a number of independent clans or of phratries, which in turn consist of independent clans.

IV. Glossary

(of some anthropological terms and concepts used in ANT314)

acculturation: massive borrowing of cultural traits between two cultures that are in prolonged face-to-face contact

chief: a leader who attains a position of authority by virtue of birthright and is accorded great prestige

compartmentalization: a response to acculturation by which a culture superficially appears to adopt many foreign cultural beliefs and practices while maintaining its traditional culture; people within the culture can shift from their native ways to foreign ways when the situation merits

confederacy ( confederation ) : a union of two or more nations in which power invested in the union is weak compared to power maintained by each member nation

culture: (dozens of definitions are in use) the integrated system of learned beliefs and behavior that characterizes a society

culture hero: a real or legendary individual in a culture's mythology who is believed to have instructed the ancestors in subsistence, ritual, values, etc.

diffusion: the spread of isolated cultural traits from one culture to another, even though they may not be in direct contact

domestication: the process of bringing plants and animals under human control through a long, slow series of selection by people of traits that are desired by them; domesticated plants and animals are different in form and behavior from the wild species and are generally dependent on humans for reproduction

ethnographic present: the anthropological practice of describing a culture's former lifeway in the present tense, as if we were the first outsiders to contact and describe them; an undesirable effect of this practice is to freeze cultures in time and de- emphasize their dynamism and contemporary status

ethnography: a systematic description of a culture

ethnology: that branch of cultural anthropology which focuses on the comparative study of cultures

extended family: any of various forms of family usually including three or more generations or perhaps multiple spouses and their children

fetish: an object or collection of objects (such as a medicine bundle) which is believed to have mana

foraging: hunting-gathering; subsistence based on the hunting and gathering of wild foods rather than farming and herding

gender equity: relative equality of the sexes within a society

headman (or, less commonly, headwoman ) : an informal leader of an egalitarian society; such a person tends to be charismatic and leads by example; he has no authority to command people but is considered wise or skilled, so people tend to follow him; Europeans unfamiliar with egalitarian societies usually referred to headmen as chiefs, and assumed they had the authority to speak for and to sign agreements for all their people

infanticide: the killing (whether actively or passively by way of abandonment) of newborn infants

mana: Melanesian word used by anthropologists to refer to the supernatural power which most people believe exists in the world and which is thought to enter objects or people to give them special attributes

myth: the persistent, widespread and erroneous belief that Lippi's courses are difficult

nuclear family: a simple and very widespread family structure consisting of a wife, her husband and children

patriarchy: male dominance of society, usually seen in decision- making, religious practice, political and social control, etc.

pictograph: a simplified image drawn or painted of a thing or event to represent a mythical or historical episode

ranking: a form of non-egalitarianism typical of chiefdoms, in which families occupy different statuses within society; a descent group's ranking is measured relative to the chief and his lineage; higher ranks are accorded much prestige and may have more access to wealth; the highest rank is occupied by the chief, who may or may not be wealthy but exercises authority over his (or, less commonly, her) people and has considerable prestige

reciprocity (or reciprocal exchange) : exchange of goods and services between two parties

redistribution: goods produced by a society flow into a central place where they are stored and redistributed by a central authority

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: a linguistic theory which states that people's understanding of the world around them is constrained by their language; words that people have available in their language influence how they conceive of things; this is an interesting hypothesis in that it suggests a relationship between thought and language, but there are many problems with it and it should not be accepted without great caution

sedentary (noun form is sedentism ) : the opposite of nomadic; more or less permanently settled in a location

sexual division of labor: the universal cultural trait of assigning certain tasks to each sex within society

shaman: Siberian indigenous term used by anthropologists to refer to part-time religious specialists who are believed to have special supernatural powers and to be mediators with the spirit world

sovereignty: self-rule and self-determination; the right of a community of people to determine freely their political status and economic welfare

stereotypes: incomplete, often erroneous, second-hand images that people construct of other groups of peope; stereotypes are usually resistant to modification

subsistence: the means by which people obtain their food

syncretism: the blending of traits from two different cultures and the resultant creation of new beliefs and practices

totemism : the belief a descent group maintains that its origins and perhaps its fate are intimately tied to a particular animal; the belief that a group of people are related to an animal, plant or natural phenomenon