Anthropology Essential Ideas/Terms

 1. Despite strong individual differences, members of a society share a common culture.  2. The size of the group within culture is shared can vary from a few to millions.  3. Culture is LEARNED.  4. Anthropologists seek to discover the customs and ranges of acceptable behavior that constitute culture.  5. Every society develops a series of ideal cultural patterns the represent what MOST members believe to be correct behavior.

 6. Culture acts as a restraint on individual behavior-keeping individuals “in line”.  7. Culture is generally adaptive to the conditions of its physical and social environment.  8. Culture traits may be neutral, positive or negative.  9. Culture is always changing.  10. Each generation adds to the collective culture.

 Anthropology, Archaeology, Culture, Ethnology, Human Variation, Paleoanthropology, Linguistics, Prehistory, Cultural Anthropology, Physical Anthropology

 Describing the ability to react to change; in a network, adaptability allows the network to function despite changes in the environment

 the principle that an individual human's beliefs and activities should be understood in terms of his or her own culture

 the knowledge and values shared by a society  a set of learned beliefs, values and behaviors the way of life shared by the members of a society.

 centered on a specific ethnic group, usually one's own

 belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic group

 Coping or responding in a damaging way, such as a maladaptive response to fear of speaking by always avoiding speaking situations

 A culturally established rule prescribing appropriate social behavior

 sample in which every element in the population has an equal chance of being selected

 an extended social group having a distinctive cultural and economic organization

 a social group within a national culture that has distinctive patterns of behavior and beliefs