| A | B |
|---|
| anthropology | understand uniqueness and diversity of human societies around the world. and to discover fundamental similarities that link the world. |
| paleoanthropology/archaelogy | concerned with human past and include the study of tangible, physical remains that must be located or removed from the ground. |
| physical anthropologist | biological aspects of humanity - fossil remains of humans and their ancestors |
| archaeologist | interpretation of past cultures through the material they left behind. |
| fossils | fragmentary remains of bones and living materials perserved from earlier periods |
| paleoanthropology | study of human evolution and behavior of early human ancestors through analysis of fossils |
| genetics | study of biological blueprints that dictate the inheritance of physical characteristics --- study of genes, the units of heredity |
| artifacts | material products of former societies |
| middens | ancient garbage |
| historical linguistics | the comparison and classification of different languages to explore the historical links among them |
| structural linguistics | structure of human grammatical patterns and other linguistic elements to learn how contemporary languages mirror or differ |
| ethnology / cultural anthropology | examines various contemporary societies throughout the world |
| participant observation | research strategy which involves learning language and culture of group by participating in daily activitites |
| ethnography | ethnologist's description of a particular society |
| applied anthropology | use of anthropological data to offer practical solutions to problems faced in modern society |
| holistic approach | understanding humankind in a broad, comprehensive account that draws on all subfields |
| ethnocentrism | practice of judging another society by values and standards of one's own society |
| research design | objectives of the project are set out and strategy for recovering the relative data is outlined. |
| paleoecology | reconstruction and interpretation of past ancient environments --> "paleo" means old, and "ecology" means study of environment |
| taphonomy | study of the variety of natural and behavioral processes that led to the formation of deposits uncovered --> may include erosion, decay, and animal activities |
| culture | encompasses all aspects of human activity --> plans, rules, techniques, and designs for living that are passed on from generation to generation |
| material culture | physical procucts of human society --> invcludes artifacts, features, and archaeological sites. |
| features | nonmovable artifacts --> such as an ancient fire hearth, a pit dug in the ground, or a wall. |
| ecofacts | non-artifactual organic and environmental remains |
| context | the specific location of an artifact in the ground and all associated materials |
| relative dating | dating method that determines whether one event occurred before or after another --> determines dates of artifacts relative to eachother |
| radiocarbon dating | based on decay of carbon |
| potassium argon dating | measure of decay or potassium into argon gas --> often used byt paleoanthropologists to date volcanic rocks |
| dendochronology | numerical dating based on growth rings on trees |
| senation | dating technique based on assumption that any particular artifact, attribute, style will appear, gradually increase in popularity until it reaches a peak, and then progressively decrease |
| society | a group of people who depend on one another for well being or survival |
| linguistics | field of anthropology concerned with language |
| racism | belief that some human populations are supreme to others because of inherited genetically transmitted characteristics |
| biopsychological equality | notion that although individuals differ, all human beings have equal capacity for culture. --> biological and mental capabilities |
| cultural relativism | a people's values and customs must be understood in terms of the culture of which they are a part |
| emic (perspective) | insider's view of a culture |
| human variation | physiological differences among modern humans |
| etic (perspective) | an outsider's perspective on a society which may not be meaningful to native participants in a culture |
| racialism | claims that 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. |
| indigenous peoples | groups of people who have occupied a region for a long time but who have litle or no influence in the government of the nation-state that ultimately controls their land. |
| ethnographic method | gathering and interpretation of information based on intensive, firsthand study of a particular culture |
| informants | people thorugh whom the anthropologist learns about the culture |
| plasticity | ability to change behavior in response to a wide range of environmental demands |
| ecological functionalists | focused on relationship between environment and society --> the ways in which cultural institutions work can best be understood by examining their effects on the environment. |
| postmodernists | look at culture/society as a battleground where individuals and groups fight for power and the right to control interpretation of culture. --> suggest that anthropological accounts are partial truths reflecting the background, training, and social position of their authors. |
| norms | ideas that members of a culture share about the way things ought to be done |
| subculture | groups that share norms and values significantly different from those of the dominant culture |
| diffusion | spread of cultural elements from one culture to another through cultural contact |
| positivism | an empirical scientific approach that dominated the nineteenth and most of the twentieth centuries. |
| empirical scientific | an approach to understanding phenomena based on the attempts to observe and record a presumed objective reality |
| androcentric bias | male bias |
| cross-cultural survey | uses statistical correlations of traits from mnay different cultures to test generalizations about culture and human behavior. |
| evolution | process of change in species over time |
| population | a group of individuals who can potentially interbreed and occupy a given territory at the same time. |
| gene pool | asortment of genes in a population |
| mutations | alterations of genetic material. |
| gene flow | exchange of alleles between populations as a result of interbreeding |
| genetic drift | evolutionary change resulting from random sampling phenomena that eiliminate or maintain certain alleles in a gene pool. |
| founder effect | a type of genetic drift resulting from the randomly determined genetic complement present in the founders of an isolated population. |
| adaptation | shift in allele frequencies in respones to changing environmental conditions |
| opposable thumb | distinguishing element of the primate hand and the human hand |
| dentition | number, form and arrangement of teeth serves as a distinguishing characteristic of many types of animals |
| hominoids | primates most closesly related to humans |
| quadrupeds | use all four limbs for locomotion |
| sexual dumorphism | males and females exhibit different characteristics |
| bipedualism | walking on two legs |
| hominids | distinct forms of primates that had structural anatomy needed for bipedualism --> 2 genuses: australopithacus and Homo |
| transitional forms | hominids between 400,000 and 200,000 years ago which are difficult to classify because they are similar to homo erectus and homo sapiens |
| multiregional evolutionary model | the view that Homo Sapiens evolved from Homo Erectus concurrently in different regions of the world. |
| replacement model | paradigm used to explain evolution of modern humans which says that H. Sapiens evolved in one area of the world first and then migrated to other regions |
| polymorphism | a trait that exhibits variation within a species |
| polytypic | a species exhibiting physical variation in different regional populations. |
| acclimatization | physiological process of becoming accustomed to new environments |
| races | divisions within humankind based on identifiable human traits |
| multivariate analysis | examines interrelationships between a number of different traits --> for example: disease, blood groups, and demographics |
| diurnal | active during the day |
| terrestrial | ground-dwelling |
| Structure Two | the academy building [liberty hall] |
| Structure One | an early nineteenth century barn/stable |
| Structure Three | the springhouse |
| Structure Four | the red brick farmhouse |
| Structure Five | brick kiln |
| Structure Six | half-cellar of a domestic structure that no longer stands |
| Structure Seven | smokehouse |
| Structure Eight | domestic building that predated the standing farmhouse |
| Structure Nine | the steward's house |
