Chapter 10 notes

1. Chapter 10 notes Anthropology Essential Ideas/Terms

2. Chapter Essential Ideas • 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.

3. Continued… • 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.

4. Adaptive • Describing the ability to react to change; in a network, adaptability allows the network to function despite changes in the environment

5. Cultural Relativism • the principle that an individual human's beliefs and activities should be understood in terms of his or her own culture

6. 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.

7. Ethnocentric • centered on a specific ethnic group, usually one's own

8. Ethnocentrism • belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic group

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

10. Norms • A culturally established rule prescribing appropriate social behavior

11. Random Sample • sample in which every element in the population has an equal chance of being selected

12. Society • an extended social group having a distinctive cultural and economic organization

13. Subculture • a social group within a national culture that has distinctive patterns of behavior and beliefs