| dating methods that use physical and chemical properties of artifacts and structures modified by humans to establish their age without reference to other artifacts. For example, radiocarbon dating is used to date organic materials generally up to 50,000 years old. | absolute dating methods |
| communities with no formal positions of leadership. | acephalous societies |
| the production of more complex tools, including hand axes, by H. erectus from 1.6 million to 200,000 years ago. | Acheulean tool industry |
| a contractual relationship by marriage or mutual agreement that is depicted as a double line on the kinship chart. | affinal tie |
| gendered groups of people of roughly the same age who play a distinctive role in society with important social obligations and abilities. Age-grade systems tend to be associated with acephalous societies. | age sets |
| the capability to act and make decisions. | agency |
| the belief that God or the divine is unknowable and therefore skepticism is appropriate. | agnosticism |
| not acknowledging the specific historical experiences of a group, and thus attempting to understand societies without taking into consideration their connections to other cultures. | ahistorical |
| an alternative form of a gene that arises by mutation and is found in the same place on a chromosome, directly impacting the expression of a genetic trait or phenotype. | allele |
| speciation that occurs when two populations of the same species become isolated from each other due to a change in the environment, such as geographic isolation. | allopatric speciation |
| versions of modernity shaped by local social and cultural forms. | alternative modernity |
| tracing an individual’s kinship through a single gendered line, with each family choosing either the mother’s or father’s descent line. | ambilineal descent |
| a postmarital residence pattern in which the couple chooses one lineage for their offspring, either the mother’s or the father’s; associated with ambilineal descent. | ambilocal residence |
| a social and political organization with many local chapters around the United States of activist Native people focused on confronting the federal and state governments over racist policies and actions. AIM was most active in the 1970s and 1980s. | American Indian Movement |
| anatomical similarities between two species that suggest not a common ancestor but rather similar environmental adaptations. | analogous structures |
| homologous structures or traits that may also be found in the common ancestor of the species being classified. | ancestral characteristics |
| a hypothesis that suggests that primate origins and typical primate characteristics developed in response to the emergence of flowering plants. | angiosperm theory |
| a multicellular organism, either vertebrate or invertebrate, that can breathe, move, ingest, excrete, and sexually reproduce. | animal |
| the processing of animal products for use as food, textiles, and tools. | animal domestication |
| a human sense of understanding and sensing the feelings of other animals. | animal empathy |
| a worldview in which there is believed to be spiritual agency in all things, including natural elements such as rocks and trees. | animism |
| of or relating to a spiritual belief that everything in the world has its own living spirit. | animistic |
| a culture-bound syndrome present in North American and European cultures, characterized by a person not eating to meet beauty standards. | anorexia nervosa |
| the contemporary period of increasing human impact on the ecosystems of our planet. | Anthropocene |
| the belief that the human perspective is the most important one; also called human exceptionalism. | anthropocentrism |
| the study of humanity across time and space. | anthropology |
| a series of protests that spread throughout the Arab world in the early 2010s, demanding an end to oppressive government and poor living conditions. | Arab Spring |
| a hypothesis that proposes that primates evolved the traits they did as an adaptation to life in the trees. | arboreal theory |
| the study of how people in the past understood and used celestial objects for navigation, calendars, politics, and the timing of ritual events. | archaeoastronomy |
| a specialist who studies plants and seeds appearing in an archaeology site. | archaeobotanist |
| the place where an object was originally found, along with other associations, such as the stratum it was found in, specific features, and other objects associated with it. | archaeological context |
| the scientific process of uncovering artifacts and other biological and cultural remains in the historic and prehistoric past of human-inhabited sites. | archaeological excavation |
| the field of anthropology that relies on the excavation of artifacts and fossils to explore how environmental and historical conditions have produced a diversity of human cultures. | archaeology |
| the period of time that precedes the emergence of the earliest early modern humans (Homo sapiens) around 300,000 years ago. | archaic Homo |
| a method of conducting anthropological research without doing fieldwork, relying instead on materials and documents previously collected by others. | armchair anthropology |
| the application of human creative skill and imagination to produce works intended to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power, typically but not exclusively in a visual form such as a painting or sculpture. | art |
| objects made by humans, such as pottery or tools. | artifacts |
| objects that are portable and show evidence of human cultural activity; for example, bones that show evidence of drawings sketched on them, stone tools, pottery, etc. | artifacts |
| the process of deliberately breeding certain specimens of plants or animals to encourage desired traits. | artificial selection |
| in Akan societies, the group of young men charged with protecting the town, performing public works, and representing public opinion. Asafo could depose corrupt and unpopular chiefs. | asafo |
| not engaging in sexual thoughts or activities. | asexual |
| a tool or condition that can be harnessed to increase value and effect positive change. | asset |
| the process of changing the culture of a person or group of people to some other culture, through socialization or education. | assimilation |
| legal protection extended by one country to citizens of another. | asylum |
| the lack of belief in a god or gods. | atheism |
| authority derived from perceived legitimacy, dependent on culture. | authoritative knowledge |
| the exercise of power based on expertise, charisma, or roles of leadership. | authority |
| a postmarital residence pattern where a newly married couple resides with the groom’s mother’s brother; associated with patrilineal descent. | avunculocal residence |
| the practice building social relationships through the exchange of gifts of roughly equal value. | balanced reciprocity |
| a form of social organization associated with gatherer-hunter societies. Bands are relatively small, often around 50 people, ideal for a nomadic or seminomadic lifestyle. | band |
| communities of gatherer-hunters in which leadership is temporary, situational, and informal. | band societies |
| an igneous rock frequently used for early grinding tools in the Near East. | basalt |
| an art form of many Indigenous peoples, created from woven plant matter. Each tribe has its own traditions and styles, with some tribes using many styles. | basketry |
| a type of tool characteristic of the Acheulean tool industry, with both sides worked. | biface tools |
| a broader chart of EGO family relation that connects kinships by merging EGO’s parents’ same-sex siblings and their offspring into the immediate family (creating parallel cousins) and bifurcating, or cutting off, EGO’s parents’ opposite-sex siblings and their offspring (creating cross cousins); also called Iroquois kinship. | bifurcate merging kinship |
| an informal leader who has gained power by accumulating wealth, sponsoring feasts, and helping young men pay bride wealth. | big man |
| tracing an individual’s kinship through both the mother’s and father’s lines. | bilateral descent |
| two opposing concepts, commonly found in institutions such as kinship and in myth. | binary opposition |
| the scientific naming system developed by Carolus Linnaeus that represents two parts of a taxonomic name. The name is italicized, the genus is always capitalized, and the species is always lowercased. For example: Homo sapiens. | binomial nomenclature |
| the study of bones and other biological materials found in archaeological remains. | bioarchaeology |
| a perspective that looks at both the cultural and biological roles that food plays in human lives. | biocultural approach |
| the assumption that culture is informed by physical and sociocultural elements. | biocultural approach |
| the variety of plants and animals that exist on Earth and form a living ecosystem. | biodiversity |
| the field of anthropology that focuses on the earliest processes in the biological and sociocultural development of human beings as well as the biological diversity of contemporary humans. Biological anthropologists study the origins, evolution, and diversity of our species. | biological anthropology |
| a definition of species as members of populations that actually or potentially interbreed in nature. | biological species definition |
| health care systems rooted in European and North American scientific knowledge. | biomedicine |
| the ways in which populations are divided and categorized as a means of control, often by the state. | biopolitics |
| engaging in sexual thoughts or activities involving persons of one’s own sex/gender category as well as a different sex/gender category (or multiple other such categories). | bisexual |
| a family in which there is more than one origin family for the members. | blended families |
| a term first applied by the US federal government to determine which people had rights to services and land at reservations. The term has become a characteristic to define who is eligible for citizenship in a tribe, with membership open only to those who have a minimum blood quantum of Indigenous genealogical ancestry. | blood quantum |
| communities around the world with a high concentration of people near or over the age of 100. | Blue Zones |
| educational institutions established by federal authorities to efficiently educate and assimilate Indigenous children through an immersive environment. | boarding schools |
| application of paint to the body | body painting |
| the class of people who own the means of production. Historically, the bourgeoisie were descendants of powerful feudal families. | bourgeoisie |
| a transfer of wealth from the groom’s to the bride’s family through labor, usually the contracted labor of the groom, either before or after the marriage. | bride service |
| the transfer of material and symbolic value from the groom’s to the bride’s family in order to legitimize the marriage contract. | bride wealth |
| a region in the frontal lobe of the brain (which includes two Brodmann areas) first found in H. habilis and connected with the production of speech. | Broca’s area |
| a facial depression above the canine tooth found in modern humans. | canine fossa |
| the act of eating an individual of one’s own species. | cannibalism |
| an economic mode of production based around markets, ownership of land and resources, and wage labor. Capitalism has produced classes that are grounded in acceptance of the idea that earned wealth or status is the basis for social hierarchy within a nation. | capitalism |
| a system of social inequality based on an individual’s circumstances of birth, wherein people are not allowed to move out of their social group. | caste |
| a subcategory of the primate infraorder Simiiformes that includes any primate considered an Old World monkey, an ape, or in the lineage of humans. This classification features downward-facing nostrils and a 2.1.2.3 dental formula. | Catarrhini |
| the theory that changes in Earth’s fauna and flora were caused by supernatural catastrophic forces rather than evolution. | catastrophism |
| a psychological concept used to study regular cultural behavior and how deviation from that behavior might be explained. | causal attributions |
| communities in which power is concentrated in formal positions of authority, such as chiefs or kings. | centralized societies |
| a superfamily of the primate infraorder Simiiformes, subcategory Catarrhini, that consists of Old World monkeys. | Cercopithecoidea |
| the process of sequential migration from the same community of origin. | chain migration |
| the inherited office of leadership in a chiefdom, combining coercive forms of economic, political, judicial, military, and religious authority. | chief |
| societies in which political leadership is regionally organized through an affiliation or hierarchy of chiefs. Chiefdoms are associated with intensive agriculture, militarism, and religious ideologies. | chiefdoms |
| agricultural plots created from layers of mud and vegetation in the shallow part of a lake. | chinampas |
| dating methods used to analyze various physical or chemical characteristics of an artifact in order to assign a date or range of dates for its production. | chronometric dating methods |
| repeated pattern of movement between locations, usually associated with work. | circular migration |
| the classification of organisms based on branchings of descendent lineages from a common ancestor | cladistics |
| large kin groups that trace their descent from a common ancestor who is either not remembered or possibly mythological. | clans |
| a tribal social division in which a group of lineages have a presumed and symbolic kinship. | clans |
| a group of people with the same socioeconomic status and proximity to power. | class |
| an ethnographic method resulting in a straightforward, clinical study of a medical situation. | clinical observations |
| the practice of tacking back and forth between various linguistic styles depending on contexts and interlocutors. | code-switching |
| the ability to enforce judgments and commands using socially sanctioned violence. | coercive power |
| an interaction between different species that influences each species’ evolution; the simplest case of this is predator-prey relationships. | coevolution |
| a kinship structure that follows descent through both men and women, although it may vary by family. | cognatic descent |
| EGO’s siblings and their offspring. | collateral kin |
| state governments imposed by foreigners to rule over local peoples. | colonial states |
| the political domination of another country in the interest of economic exploitation. | colonialism |
| a system through which European (and eventually American) countries exerted power over areas of the world in order to exploit their natural and human resources. | colonialism |
| the idea that people “don’t see color,” meaning that they are unaware of the ways in which someone may experience the world because of the color of their skin. | color blindness |
| the association of commodities with magical powers of personal transformation. | commodity fetishism |
| the transfer of information from a sender to a receiver; can be voluntary or involuntary, simple or complex. | communication |
| a cohort of individuals participating in a rite of passage who share a strong sense of equality and social bonding among themselves. | communitas |
| radio stations that are community owned and operated, staffed by groups of professionals and volunteers. | community radio |
| two or more health conditions that often occur together. | comorbidities |
| a form of godparent relationship introduced originally as a social institution within the Catholic Church and later adapted as popular Catholicism in Latin America in which godparents are named for a Catholic child or young person during rituals such as baptism, confirmation, and marriage. | compadrazgo |
| a biological (bloodline) connection between individuals that is indicated by a single line on a kinship chart; it is considered to be a permanent tie that cannot be broken. | consanguineal tie |
| members of the same species. | conspecifics |
| worldly knowledge and sophistication, often associated with involvement in global forms of media. | cosmopolitanism |
| the volume of the interior of the cranium or skull, providing an approximate size of the brain. | cranial capacity |
| a theory that highlights a culture’s inequalities, including inequalities in health care. | critical medical anthropology (CMA) |
| an applied theory aimed at pointing out issues within health care systems and changing them for the better. | critical theories of health |
| EGO’s cousins through their parents’ opposite-sex siblings. | cross cousin |
| a principle in geology and archaeology that suggests that a geologic or cultural feature that cuts across another feature is the more recently deposited of the two. | cross-cutting relationship |
| the cultural traditions of cooking and preparing food. | cuisine |
| basic manipulation of nature, such as the intentional growing of plants. | cultivation |
| the field of anthropology devoted to describing and understanding the wide variety of human cultures. Cultural anthropologists focus on such things as social thought, action, ritual, values, and institutions. | cultural anthropology |
| claiming or using elements of another culture in an inappropriate way. | cultural appropriation |
| the adoption, usually without acknowledgment, of cultural identity markers from subcultures or minority communities into mainstream culture by people with a relatively privileged status. | cultural appropriation |
| competencies, skills, and qualifications people acquire that allow them cultural authority. An institutionalized form of cultural capital is educational attainment. | cultural capital |
| a psychological term used to describe the way a culture experiences and expresses distress. | cultural concepts of distress (CCD) |
| how humans develop culture as an adaptation to various environments. | cultural ecology |
| the study of the origins of human cultural forms and how those forms have changed over long periods of time. | cultural evolutionism |
| patterned, shared ways of interpreting situations. | cultural frames |
| traditions passed down through generations that serve as primary characteristics of how a group defines and identifies itself to other cultural groups. | cultural heritage |
| the exchange and innovation within cultures that is a product of migration and globalization. | cultural hybridity |
| the ways in which people define and distinguish themselves culturally from other groups. | cultural identity |
| an evolutionary approach that identifies technology and economic factors as fundamental aspects of culture, molding other features of culture such as family life, religion, and politics. | cultural materialism |
| a stereotype of a person from a different culture, used to create a cultural distinction between “us” and “them.” | cultural other |
| routine or habitual forms of behavior. | cultural practices |
| understanding every element of culture within the broader whole of that culture. Cultural relativism highlights how each belief or practice is related to all of the other beliefs and practices in a culture. | cultural relativism |
| a conventionalized position in a particular context or situation. | cultural role |
| a theory that that analyzes how systems within a particular culture, including health care systems, affect one’s worldview and actions. | cultural systems model |
| the whole way of life of a society, combining material objects, technologies, social relationships, everyday practices, deeply held values, and shared ideas. | culture |
| an idealized animal or human figure associated with supernatural feats. A culture hero is particular to their cultural group, exhibiting specific traits, actions, and discoveries that are significant to that group of people | culture hero |
| an approach to anthropology that emphasizes the responsibility of anthropologists to work for the enhancement and empowerment of those most alienated and dispossessed. | decolonizing anthropology |
| a god, usually named, with individual personalities and interests. | deity |
| an absolute dating technique that uses patterns of growth of tree rings and cross-dating to determine the approximate age of wood. | dendrochronology |
| physical traits that are present in related organisms but absent from their last common ancestor. They are often associated with a speciation event. | derived characteristics |
| individuals who are believed to be connected by blood or who have an enduring kindship bond across generations. | descent |
| a form of language specific to a particular region. | dialect |
| the dispersion of a people from their original home. | diaspora |
| the movement and dispersal of large ethnic groups from their homelands because of warfare, institutionalized violence, or opportunity (usually education or employment). | diaspora |
| a space or gap between the canines and the other teeth that allows for the upper and lower teeth to bite together. | diastema |
| in an anthropological context, the spread of material objects, practices, and ideas among cultures in complex relations of trade, migration, and conquest. | diffusion |
| a biological agent that negatively affects health. | disease |
| migration due to persecution, conflict, or violence; involves refugees and those seeking asylum. | displacement |
| a practice or test to discern knowledge about a certain event or situation. | divination |
| a set of formal and usually rigid principles or teachings of a religious organization. | doctrine |
| the selective breeding of a species by humans to create animals better suited to human life. | domestication |
| an ongoing loss of capital and the ensuing loss of social status. | downward social mobility |
| material value carried by the bride into her own marriage to provide her with symbolic leverage within her husband’s lineage. | dowry |
| creation myths in which a creator deity sends an agent, usually an animal, into deep waters to find mud that the deity will use to create dry land and humans. | earth-diver myths |
| natural objects found at an archaeological site, such as seeds, bone, shells, etc., that show no sign of human craftsmanship. | ecofacts |
| a definition of species that explains differences in form and behavior as the result of adaptations to the environment and natural selection. | ecological species definition |
| monetary assets, including material assets that can be converted to money. | economic capital |
| an international conservation movement to preserve the flora and fauna of endangered natural environments through conscientious tourism. | ecotourism |
| emphasizing equality and sharing. | egalitarian |
| describes a society or other group in which diverse roles are all given the same decision-making power and accorded the same respect among the group. | egalitarian |
| the starting point for the kinship chart; used to read relationships as alignments between EGO and other individuals. | EGO |
| viewing and attempting to evaluate other peoples and cultures according to the standards of those cultures; an “insider’s” point of view. | emic perspective |
| increased brain size over time. | encephalization |
| a measurement defined as the ratio between brain and body size. | encephalization quotient |
| the process of learning and acquiring a particular culture, often intensified in childhood. | enculturation |
| an impression taken from the inside of the cranium (braincase), frequently used by paleoanthropologists to determine the shape and approximate size of the brain in hominids and other primates. | endocranial cast |
| displacement caused by natural disasters, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, or droughts. | environmental migration |
| a disease that spreads more than expected among a given group of people. | epidemic |
| the changes in gene expression that take place during a person’s lifetime, often through environmental exposure. | epigenetics |
| a sense that some trait is so profoundly deep and consequential that it creates a common identity for everyone who has that trait. | essentialism |
| the study of how people in different cultures categorize and use plants for food, shelter, tools, transportation, art, and religion. | ethnobotany |
| the notion that one’s own culture is so superior that no other culture is worth consideration. Ethnocentric people often imagine that the world would be a much better place if the beliefs, values, and practices of their own culture were spread to or imposed on everyone else in the world. | ethnocentrism |
| the use of film in ethnographic research, either as a method, a record, or a means of reporting on anthropological fieldwork. | ethnographic film |
| a written book or article about a particular culture. | ethnography |
| the study of differences and relationships between various peoples, societies, and cultures. | ethnology |
| a culture’s traditional knowledge and treatments for the management of health and illness. | ethnomedicine |
| the sum total of all of human knowledge across time. | ethnosphere |
| the study of organism classifications and taxonomies developed and used largely by Indigenous peoples and other cultural groups. | ethnotaxonomy |
| viewing a culture from the perspective of an outsider looking in. | etic (or ethnocentric) perspective |
| changes that appear in a species over time. Evolution is dependent on genetic variation and natural selection to pass on beneficial traits that will increase survival of the species. | evolution |
| a method that uses evolutionary biology and culture to better understand human health. | evolutionary medicine |
| a hypothesis that disease and nutritional deficiencies result when people’s bodies are unable to adapt to an environment that they have not spent most of their evolutionary history in. | evolutionary mismatch |
| the removal of fossils and artifacts from the ground in order to learn as much as possible about how people lived in times before and after the development of writing. | excavation |
| the removal of an adverse supernatural spirit from a person. | exorcism |
| two or more family units functioning as a single integrated family; may involve two or more generations. | extended family |
| a form of plant cultivation in which new plots are regularly cleared, prepared with digging sticks or hoes, and fertilized with animal dung, ash, or other natural products. | extensive horticulture |
| a horticultural practice in which plots of land are farmed for a period of time, then left to lie fallow as farmers move on to cultivate other plots. | extensive or shifting cultivation |
| a state that cannot perform any of the essential functions of a state. | failed state |
| describes a plot of land that is not cultivated for a period of time so that wild vegetation may grow in naturally. | fallow |
| two or more people in an adaptable social and economic alliance that involves kinship, whether perceived through blood, marriage, or other permanent or semipermanent arrangement. | family |
| the family unit in which EGO was raised and nurtured as a child and adolescent. | family of orientation |
| the family that EGO produces, usually as a result of marriage. | family of procreation |
| the idea that a person can engage in evil supernatural activities in order to gain access to worldly desires such as wealth, sex, and/or knowledge. | Faustian bargain |
| elaborate meals of symbolically meaningful foods shared among large groups of people. | feasts |
| cultural structures found at an archaeological site that are not movable or portable, such as parts of a temple, altars, tombs, etc. | features |
| an approach to anthropology that seeks to transform research methods and findings by engaging with more diverse perspectives and using insights from feminist theory. | feminist anthropology |
| a kinship tie that is socially interpreted to be by blood or marriage and that is based on intentional relationships, such as adoption, godparenthood, or intimate personal ties. | fictive kin |
| a research method that requires cultural anthropologists to live for many months or years in the societies they study, adopting local ways of living, eating, dressing, and speaking as closely as possible. | fieldwork |
| systems of categories that people use to organize their knowledge of the world. | folk taxonomies |
| a substance eaten for the purpose of nutrition and/or social status. | food |
| areas that lack access to nutritious and affordable foods. | food deserts |
| areas that have high access to supermarkets and fresh foods. | food oases |
| foods that one should eat and are considered culturally appropriate. | food prescriptions |
| foods that are prohibited and are not considered proper as food; also called food taboos. | food proscriptions |
| the collection, production, and consumption of food; how culinary traditions shape cultural identity. | foodways |
| the opening at the base of the skull where the spinal column and nerves enter to reach the brain. The position of the foramen magnum can be used to determine if a species was bipedal. | foramen magnum |
| the recruitment, transportation, transfer, and/or harboring of persons by means of threat or use of force or coercion for the purpose of financial exploitation. | forced labor |
| migration due to persecution, conflict, or violence; involves refugees and those seeking asylum. | forced migration |
| the application of the techniques of biological anthropology to solve crimes. | forensic anthropology |
| a branch of biological anthropology in which scientific techniques are used to determine the sex, age, genetic population, or other relevant characteristics of skeletal or biological materials related to matters of civil or criminal law. | forensic anthropology |
| the remains of organism preserved in the environment. | fossils |
| any remains, impression, or traces of living things from a former geologic age. | fossils |
| a gene on chromosome number seven that is found in many vertebrates; sometimes called “the language gene” because the human mutation seems to be associated with language. | FOXP2 |
| a state government that cannot adequately perform the essential functions of a state, such as maintaining law and order, building basic infrastructure, guaranteeing basic amenities, and defending its citizens against violence. | fragile state |
| a form of marriage in which biological brothers marry a single wife. | fraternal polyandry |
| occurs when two or more elements of culture come into conflict, resulting in alteration or replacement of those elements. | friction |
| a form of analysis that focuses on the contemporary purposes of culture. | functionalism |
| the mode of subsistence in which people rely on resources readily available in their environment. Gathering-hunting peoples collect fruits, nuts, berries, and roots and harvest honey. They also hunt and trap wild animals. | gathering-hunting |
| people whose enduring physical, romantic, and/ or emotional attractions are to people of the same sex or gender; usually refers to men who are attracted to other men, but may include women who are attracted to other women. | gay |
| a set of cultural identities, expressions and roles that are assigned to people, often based upon the interpretation of their bodies, and in some cases, their sexual and reproductive anatomy. | gender |
| a coordinated set of ideas about gender categories, relations, behaviors, norms, and ideals. | gender ideology |
| rejecting strict male and female gender categories in favor of a more flexible and contextual expression of gender. | gender nonbinary |
| alteration of the frequencies of alleles in a population that results from interbreeding with organisms from another population. | gene flow |
| money that can be exchanged for a wide variety of goods and services. | general-purpose money |
| the practice of sharing without regard for the value of objects or interest in compensation. | generalized reciprocity |
| a kinship system in which the terms of reference are for gender and generation only, creating large units of immediate family; also called Hawaiian kinship. | generational kinship |
| a branch of biological anthropology that uses molecular science to explore questions concerning human origins, early human migrations, and the appearance of disease across time. | genetic anthropology |
| random changes in the frequencies of alleles in a gene pool. | genetic drift |
| plants whose DNA has been altered through human intervention. | genetically modified plants |
| the complete set of genes or genetic material present in a cell or organism. | genome |
| a complete set of genetic material found in an organism. | genotype |
| a marriage between one or two deceased individuals in order to create an alliance between lineages. | ghost marriage |
| proposed group for which no fossil evidence has yet been found. | ghost population |
| the dramatic increase in global processes of production and consumption since the 1970s. | globalization |
| female deities. | goddesses |
| deities; often, specifically male deities. | gods |
| the idea that species evolve slowly and continuously over long periods of time. | gradualism |
| drawings, depictions, and writings on a wall typically without permission and meant for the public to see | graffiti |
| a concept detailing a hierarchical structure of all matter and life. | great chain of being |
| woman-centered. | gynocentric |
| the ingrained habits and dispositions that are socialized into people from birth depending on their status in society; used to explain how individuals uphold cultural systems. | habitus |
| the process of attaching stone points to a handle, which increases a tool’s effectiveness for hunting. | hafting |
| the use of a dominant hand, suggests lateralization of the brain and cognitive development. | handedness |
| a suborder of primates that contains tarsiers, New World monkeys, Old World monkeys, apes, and humans. | Haplorrhini |
| a state of complete well-being. | health |
| a study of the decisions that go into a person’s health choices. | health decision-making analysis |
| a powerful ideology that has become generally accepted by most groups in society as common sense. Hegemony emphasizes the norms and values that support the existing social order. | hegemony |
| the ways in which people with power keep their power through the subtle dissemination of certain values and beliefs. | hegemony |
| seeds that are not genetically modified, are open pollinated, and have been in existence for at least 50 years. | heirloom seeds |
| the notion that heterosexuality is the most natural and normal form of sexuality. | heteronormativity |
| engaging in sexual thoughts or activities involving persons of a different sex/gender category. | heterosexual |
| a type of social organization in which certain people or roles are given more power and prestige than others. | hierarchy |
| the manifestation of the sacred or divine. | hierophany |
| an approach to cultural change that describes the combination of internal and external factors that shapes the unique historical trajectory of each culture. | historical particularism |
| how the elements of human life are bound together to form distinctive cultures. | holism |
| the group representing all modern and extinct great apes, including humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and all their immediate ancestors. | hominid |
| the group representing modern humans, extinct human species, and all of humanity’s immediate ancestors, including the genera Homo, Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and Ardipithecus. | hominin |
| the evolutionary ancestors of modern humans. | hominins |
| a superfamily of the primate infraorder Simiiformes, subcategory Catarrhini, that consists of gibbons, great apes, and humanlike primates, including Homo and related fossil forms. | Hominoidea |
| similar anatomical structures that appear in different species and suggest a common ancestor. | homologous structures |
| a group of individuals who live within the same residence and share socioeconomic needs associated with production and consumption. | household |
| the recruitment, transportation, transfer, and/or harboring of persons by means of threat or use of force or coercion for the purpose of exploitation. A form of modern slavery. | human trafficking |
| organic matter in soil formed by the decomposition of plants. | humus |
| a friendship developed through gift exchange, practiced among the Dobe Ju/’hoansi and other San groups of the Kalahari. | hxaro |
| areas where two distinct species mate and produce offspring | hybrid zones |
| a supposition that is subjected to research in order to be proven or disproven through data collection. | hypothesis |
| the study of visual images, symbols, or modes of representation collectively associated with a person, cult, or movement. | iconographic study |
| distinct and specialized institutions such as religious institutions, public and private education systems, legal systems, political parties, communication systems (radio, newspapers, television), family, and culture (literature, arts, and sports). | ideological state apparatuses |
| a model that depicts how a social realm operates or should operate. An ideology identifies the entities, roles, behaviors, relationships, and processes in a particular realm as well as the rationality behind the whole system. | ideology |
| an organized set of ideas associated with a particular group or class in society. Ideologies are used to explain how various realms of nature and society work, including such realms as economics, politics, religion, kinship, gender, and sexuality. | ideology |
| indirect ways that members of a culture show distress. | idioms of distress |
| a person’s experience of ill health, as defined by their culture. | illness |
| an ethnographic method used to collect information about an informant’s illness experience in their own words. | illness narrative interviews |
| citizens of a nation-state joined together by rituals and practices that give them a collective, imagined sense of community. | imagined communities |
| an individual who moves permanently from one country to another. | immigrant |
| a set of conventions for how people in imperial or colonizing societies view the people and landscapes of subjugated territories. | imperial gaze |
| a patterned set of phrases or sentences used to compel a magical result. | incantation |
| a prohibition against sexual relations that is universal between parents and their offspring and sometimes extends to other relations considered too close for sexual relationships. | incest taboo |
| forms of print and broadcast media that are privately owned. | independent media |
| a series of more than 700 lawsuits brought by tribal nations in the 20th century against the US federal government to demand repayment for failures in the administration of a variety of responsibilities. | Indian Claims |
| characterizations of a Native person or group used to represent athletic teams, often portraying savage or cartoonish stereotypes. The practice is considered highly racist toward Native peoples. | Indian mascots |
| a commonly used term for Native Americans first applied by Christopher Columbus, who mistakenly thought the Indigenous peoples he encountered were people of India. | Indians |
| the study of one’s own culture or society using anthropological methods. The term has come to mean any application of Indigenous knowledge, perspectives, and scholarship in anthropology. | Indigenous anthropology |
| the use of media by Indigenous peoples for community identity, cultural representation, and activism. | Indigenous media |
| the original populations of a land and those who carry culture and experiences from an Indigenous culture. Indigenous peoples may also be referred to as Native peoples, tribal peoples, tribes, First Nations peoples, Aboriginal peoples, or American Indians or Native Americans. | Indigenous peoples |
| the prevalence of dark-colored varieties of animals (for example, peppered moths) in industrial areas where they are better camouflaged against predators than paler forms. | industrial melanism |
| the mode of subsistence that uses wage labor, machines, and chemical processes to mass-produce commodities. | industrialism |
| the unequal distribution of resources. | inequality |
| the unequal distribution of resources due to an unjust power imbalance. | inequity |
| the disproved idea that an organism can pass on to its offspring physical characteristics that it has acquired during its lifetime. | inheritance of acquired characteristics |
| the slight alteration of an existing element of culture, such as a new style of dress or dance. | innovation |
| a goal of anthropological research, representing the perspectives of people who practice a particular culture. | insider’s point of view |
| power imbalances that stem from the policies and practices of organizations (education, government, companies, etc.) that perpetuate oppression. | institutional inequalities |
| a university research committee that reviews biomedical or social science research proposals to determine if they appropriately protect human participants, informants, and subjects. | institutional review board |
| material and nonmaterial products of an individual or group that are protected by national and international laws and cannot be used for profit by others without attribution or compensation. | intellectual property |
| a form of plant cultivation in which one plot is farmed over and over again using labor-intensive methods such as plowing, terracing, and irrigation. | intensive agriculture |
| evidence of placing the dead in a specific manner, suggesting ritualistic practice. | intentional burials |
| planting certain species of plants side by side to enhance their health and growth. | intercropping |
| planting different seeds mixed together instead of in separate rows. | intercropping |
| wealth that is passed down through generations of descendants, accumulating interest over many years. | intergenerational wealth |
| the domestic movement of people from rural to urban areas. | internal migration |
| power imbalances that are rooted in personal biases and occur every day, reifying and naturalizing inequalities that exist at institutional and systemic levels. | interpersonal inequalities |
| the act of explaining the meaning of something. | interpretation |
| the notion that characteristics such as class, race, gender sexuality, age, and ability can all define and complicate one’s experiences, and a single aspect of identity—race, for example—is insufficient to capture the multidimensional nature of people’s experiences of oppression. | intersectionality |
| the recognition that gender, race, class, ethnicity, age, sexuality, and physical ability all intersect to make the experiences of a person in any category diverse and complex | intersectionality |
| born with differences in sex characteristics or chromosomes that do not fall within typical conceptions of male or female. | intersex |
| the genetic variation seen between two species. | interspecific variation |
| a method of research in which the researcher asks questions of an informant to gain information about a person, society, or culture. | interview |
| the genetic variation seen within a species. | intraspecific variation |
| the independent creation of a new element of culture, such as a new technology, religion, or political form. | invention |
| mainland small animal species that colonize islands might evolve larger bodies if the island does not contain key predators. On the other hand, larger species may become smaller due to more limited resources in an island environment. | island dwarfism |
| a Buddhist spiritual principle of cause and effect in which an individual’s words, actions, and deeds in one life affect their conditions in the next life cycle | karma |
| the sum of kinship relationships that is defined through EGO. | kindred |
| hereditary ruler of a multiethnic empire based on a chiefdom. | king |
| a web of relationships in which people consider themselves related to each other in a social and biological way. | kinship |
| the movement of people for the purpose of employment and/or economic stability. | labor migration |
| a complex, systematized form of communication involving the use of vocal or gestural units (words or signs) that can be combined and recombined in larger structures (sentences) that can convey an infinite array of complex meanings. | language |
| the process of learning a language. | language acquisition |
| specific ideas about language that are widespread in a culture, including how language is acquired, how it varies across social groups, how it changes over time, etc. | language ideologies |
| the process of reviving an endangered or dormant language using strategies such as immersion schools and master-apprentice programs. | language revitalization |
| the social contexts in which language is learned as well as the role of language in social learning. | language socialization |
| the belief that things that have once been in contact with each other remain connected always; a theory of magic. | law of contagion |
| a law of inheritance stating that different genes and their alleles are inherited independently. | law of independent assortment |
| a law of inheritance stating that when two alleles for a trait separate during the formation of new zygotes, these alleles will combine at random with other alleles. | law of segregation |
| the belief that things that are alike exert a force on each other; a theory of magic. | law of similarity |
| the geological principle of stratigraphy that assumes that materials, normally rock layers, found beneath other materials are older that the materials on top. | law of superposition |
| an informal mediator in Nuer society who negotiated settlement in the case of homicide. | leopard-skin chief |
| a woman whose enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction is to other women. | lesbian |
| a remarriage obligation in which the surviving widow (wife) must marry her deceased husband’s brother; the levirate occurred within polygynous societies. | levirate |
| a state in which an individual is viewed as being in a transition from one social stage to another. | liminality |
| a continuous line of descent from an original ancestor. | lineage |
| societies in which extended family groups provide the primary means of social integration. Leadership in these societies is provided by elders and other temporary or situational figures. | lineage orders |
| a form of kinship reckoning that highlights the creation of a nuclear family; also called Eskimo kinship. | lineal kinship |
| the field of anthropology that explores the central role of language in human cultural life. Linguistic anthropologists study the origins of language, how language shapes thought, and how language operates as a tool of power. | linguistic anthropology |
| the way that language varies across cultures, reflecting different environmental, historical, and sociocultural conditions. | linguistic relativity |
| common elements found in all human languages, attributable to human anatomy, perception, and cognition. | linguistic universals |
| the process of fashioning stones or rocks into tools or weapons by removing some parts. | lithic reduction |
| a person who eats locally produced foods and knows their origins. | locavore |
| a supposed system of natural law, the practice of which causes a transformation to occur. | magic |
| a term encompassing disease, illness, and sickness. | malady |
| a set of conventions for how men look at women. | male gaze |
| an impersonal force that can adhere to people or animate and inanimate objects to make them sacred. | mana |
| the Indigenous peoples of New Zealand. | Maori |
| institutions that allow for buyers and sellers to meet for the purposes of economic exchange. | markets |
| the formation of a new, socially sanctioned family as it is defined across cultures and societies. | marriage |
| the transfer of some form of wealth from one family to another to legitimize the marriage as a creation of a new social and economic household. | marriage compensation |
| three Supreme Court decisions—Johnson v. M’Intosh (1823), Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831), and Worcester v. Georgia (1832)—that determined that tribal nations are domestic sovereign nations within the United States and dependent on the federal government to guarantee their sovereignty. | Marshall court trilogy |
| mechanically reproduced forms of communication targeting large audiences. | mass media |
| objects made or used by humans, such as buildings, tools, clothing, household items, and art. | material culture |
| a hypothetical gender ideology that positions women as rulers of private and public life. | matriarchy |
| the descent of both males and females traced solely through the female ancestors. | matrilineal (uterine) descent |
| a postmarital residence pattern in which the newly married couple establishes their new household with or near the bride’s mother or the bride’s mother’s relatives; also called uxorilocal residence. | matrilocal residence |
| tools for storing and sharing information. | media |
| sets of ideas about the uses and functions of a particular genre of media. | media ideologies |
| a multidisciplinary theory studying the effects of environment on lifestyle and health. | medical ecology |
| the use of both ethnomedicine and biomedicine. | medical pluralism |
| statistics regarding treatments for medical illnesses that inform an anthropologist’s study, as well as medical policy and health choices. | medical statistics |
| substance that determines the color of skin pigmentation and protects people from ultraviolet radiation. Skin will have higher levels of melanin the closer to the equator one lives. | melanin |
| an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by internet users, often with slight variations. | meme |
| a system in which people succeed entirely through hard work and natural abilities. Someone who believes that they live in a meritocracy consequently overlooks any structural or racial inequities that may keep individuals from accessing the resources necessary for success. | meritocracy |
| Latin American term for a person of mixed heritage, normally Indigenous and Spanish or Indigenous and another White ethnicity. | mestizo |
| a linguistic idiom using something concrete to think and talk about something more abstract. | metaphor |
| a symbol that is not naturally connected to what it represents. | metaphor |
| a symbol in which a part stands for the whole. | metonym |
| everyday instances of racism, homophobia, sexism, etc. that are observed in the world as thinly veiled insults directed toward historically excluded groups. | microaggressions |
| a person who moves from their place of origin to reestablish a household. | migrant |
| movement from one place to another that reestablishes a household, whether temporarily or permanently. | migration |
| special brain cells that seem to enable mimicry. | mirror neurons |
| the anti-Black racist misogyny that Black women experience. | misogynoir |
| the socialized prejudice against women and feminine characteristics. | misogyny |
| genes traced through mitochondrial DNA that represent the female genetic originator of all humans who lived 200,000 years ago in Africa. | Mitochondrial Eve |
| a way in which people interact with the environment to meet their needs. Each mode of subsistence involves its own forms of knowledge, techniques, technologies, and social organization. | mode of subsistence |
| the recruitment, transportation, transfer, and/or harboring of persons by means of threat or use of force or coercion for the purpose of exploitation. | modern slavery |
| the complex of sociocultural features associated with industrial society. | modernity |
| the social division of a tribe into two halves. | moieties |
| a medium of exchange, unit of account, and store of value. | money |
| the formally sanctioned union of two adults. | monogamy |
| a religion that centers on a single named god or goddess. | monotheistic religion |
| large structures built for public viewing or use, such as pyramids, temples, sports arenas, and coliseums. | monumental architecture |
| the physical shape and structural form of an organism or species. | morphology |
| a complex stone tool technology largely associated with the Neanderthal. | Mousterian tool industry |
| the DNA located in the mitochondria that can be passed down unchanged from female genetic contributor to child. | mtDNA |
| “mitochondrial most recent common ancestor,” or Mitochondrial Eve, representing the common ancestor of H. sapiens around 200,000 years ago. | mtMRCA |
| a gender system that goes beyond male and female, adding one or more other categories. | multiple gender |
| the study of the interactions between humans and other species within their shared environment. | multispecies ethnography |
| describes symbols that have more than one meaning. | multivocal |
| a change in the structure of a gene that results in a variant form that may be transmitted to subsequent generations. | mutation |
| a well-known story that teaches primary principles, beliefs, and values outside of chronological time. | myth |
| the stripped-down minimal and portable units that form the structure of a myth. | mythemes |
| Canadian term for a person of partial Indigenous heritage. A Métis person has different rights from a First Nations person. | Métis |
| the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (1990), a US law that protects human remains and cultural and ceremonial objects and artifacts from collection and requires the return of such items already collected to the originating tribes. NAGPRA also allows for the repatriation of the same materials from museums and other repositories. | NAGPRA |
| the 1948 displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes; translates from Arabic as “disaster” or “catastrophe.” | Nakba |
| a public ritual that officially grants personhood by bestowing a name. | naming ceremony |
| a sense of cultural belonging or peoplehood based on a common language, common origin story, common destiny, and common norms and values. National identities are actively constructed by states. | nation |
| a political institution joining the apparatus of the state with the notion of cultural belonging or peoplehood. | nation-state |
| an educational discipline that originated from the critiques of studies of tribal communities by non-Native scholars. Native studies programs seek to center Indigenous knowledge and experience in studies of Indigenous peoples and societies. | Native studies |
| the process by which a species that is able to adapt and to pass on beneficial traits to its offspring ensures survival of the species; first formally introduced by Charles Darwin. | natural selection |
| an approach that seeks to understand the world and the laws that govern it by direct observation of nature. | naturalism |
| a domain defined by cultures as outside or on the margins of human culture. | nature |
| an extension of Foucault’s biopolitics that explores the government’s power to decide how certain categories of people live and whose deaths are more acceptable. | necropolitics |
| the indirect ways in which modern capitalist interests continue to put pressure on poor nations through economic, political, or military means in order to further exploit wealth for multinational corporations and their allies. | neocolonialism |
| an economic model that prioritizes privatization of public services in order to decrease government spending. | neoliberalism |
| a postmarital residence pattern in which the newly married couple establishes an independent household not connected to either spouse’s family. | neolocal residence |
| a tendency for an animal to maintain both physical and social juvenile characteristics into adulthood. | neotony |
| a romanticist term used to suggest that Native peoples were uncivilized and primitive, living in harmony with nature. | noble savages |
| herding that is based on the availability of environmental resources; involves unpredictable movements, as herders decide from day to day where they will go next. | nomadic pastoralism |
| the practice of moving frequently in search of resources. | nomadism |
| a person with no religious affiliation. | none |
| the cultural expectations, including behaviors and attributes, that are associated with a cultural role. | norm |
| a family composed of two parents and their immediate offspring. | nuclear family |
| an anatomical feature seen in the Neanderthal skull that appears in the rear of the skull. | occipital bun |
| the oldest and most primitive tool industry; production and use are largely in association with H. habilis. | Oldowan tool Industry |
| an approach that explores how culture constructs our social and natural realities, what we consider real, and how we act on those assumptions. Reaching beyond human realities, ontological anthropology also attempts to include nonhuman perspectives, relationships, and forms of communication. | ontological anthropology |
| the study of the nature of existence. | ontology |
| in the context of anthropological research, describes a research method whereby the researcher allows informants to answer questions without a limit in time or subject. | open-ended |
| the unjust exercise of power, either overt or covert, that is often used to control or inflict harm on entire groups of people. | oppression |
| histories of previous events, moral or ethical lessons, or stories of creation that are passed down by memorization. Many oral histories are also called mythologies, legends, texts, or folklore. | oral histories |
| spoken, rather than written, narratives of past events. | oral histories |
| cultural knowledge that is passed on through oral, rather than written, form. | oral tradition |
| the depiction of some cultural groups, particularly people from the Middle East and Asia, as exotic, irrational, fanatical, and sensuous. | orientalism |
| theory that proposes that Homo sapiens developed first in Africa and then spread around the world between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago. | Out of Africa theory |
| the study of the origins and predecessors of the present human species based fossils and other remains. | paleoanthropology |
| an outbreak of a disease over a broad area. | pandemic |
| engaging in sexual thoughts or activities with others without regard to biological sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation. Pansexual people may refer to themselves as gender-blind, meaning that sex and gender are not determining factors in their erotic relations. | pansexual |
| worldviews that often define a scientific discipline during a specific time period. | paradigms |
| EGO’s brothers and sisters through their parents’ same-sex siblings. | parallel cousin |
| a superfamily of primates from the early Oligocene that is believed to represent the earliest New World monkeys, though they first evolved in Africa. | Parapithecoidea |
| courageous public speech inspired by a moral desire to reveal the truth and demand social change. | parrhesia |
| an anthropological research method in which the researcher enters a cultural community and collects information through observation of and participation in the culture. | participant observation |
| a methodology in which the anthropologist makes first-person observations while participating in a culture. | participant observation |
| societies in which primary subsistence is based on herding groups of animals. | pastoral societies |
| the mode of subsistence associated with the care and use of herd animals. | pastoralism |
| a system of social inequality based on gender, in which power is assumed to be in the hands of men and characteristics associated with femininity are less valued. | patriarchy |
| a widespread gender ideology that positions men as rulers of private and public life. | patriarchy |
| the descent of both males and females traced solely through male ancestors. | patrilineal (agnatic) descent |
| a postmarital residence pattern in which a newly married couple establishes their new household with or near the groom’s father or the groom’s father’s relatives; also called virilocal residence. | patrilocal residence |
| small-plot farmers incorporated into larger regional economies, often states. | peasants |
| a rural, subsistence-based agricultural class with limited landholdings. | peasants |
| a musical, dramatic, or other form of entertainment presented before an audience. | performance |
| the functional power of language to make things happen. | performativity |
| the ability to influence others without any formal means of enforcement. | persuasive power |
| images carved into stone and sometimes painted. | petroglyphs |
| animals, whether domesticated or tamed, with whom humans have a social bond. | pets |
| the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism, such as color and structural morphology. | phenotype |
| a definition of species based on individuals all possessing specific derived traits. | phylogenetic species definition |
| drawings on the wall of a cave or rock shelter or on animal hide. | pictographs |
| a sacred journey to a shrine or other holy place. | pilgrimage |
| a location that has sociocultural meaning attached to it. | place |
| the effect in which belief in a treatment’s efficacy creates a positive health outcome. | placebo effect |
| the process of adapting wild plants for human use. | plant domestication |
| a subcategory of the primate infraorder Simiiformes that comprises New World monkeys | Platyrrhini |
| a theory that highlights a culture’s inequalities, including inequality in health care. | political economic medical anthropology (PEMA) |
| study of the ways in which political and economic realms continually reinforce and sometimes contradict one another over time. | political economy |
| the connection of economics and politics and how they affect wealth and inequality. | political economy |
| all elements of the sociocultural dynamics of power | politics |
| is the marriage of one wife and more than one husband. | polyandry |
| the formally sanctioned union of more than two adults at the same time. | polygamy |
| traits that are controlled by multiple genes instead of just one. | polygenic traits |
| the marriage of one man to more than one woman. | polygyny |
| interaction involving multiple species. | polyspecific |
| a religion that centers on a group of gods and/or goddesses, each devoted to a specific action or behavior. | polytheistic religion |
| an interdisciplinary field that combines history, anthropology, political science, and area studies in an effort to understand the diversity, complexity, and legacy of colonialism throughout the world. | postcolonial studies |
| enduring politico-economic relationships between former colonizers and their former colonies that continue to have negative effects on the former colonies after independence. | postcolonialism |
| skeletal material found in the body that is not related to the skull (cranial bones). | postcranial features |
| the social rules that determine where a newly married couple will reside following marriage. | postmarital residence rules |
| the cultural shift associated with postindustrialism. | postmodernity |
| a feast in which a trove of gifts is presented by the host chief to the guest chief in order to demonstrate wealth and gain prestige. | potlatch |
| the ability to influence people and/or shape social processes and social structures. | power |
| the ability to exert control, authority, or influence over others. | power |
| physical and psychological harm caused by lack of secure and stable income. | precarity |
| full-time religious leaders who manage and administer at a high level within the religious bureaucracy. | priests |
| the context of an artifact, feature, or site that has not been disturbed since its original deposition. | primary context |
| the meaning of a myth, which can be applied universally. | primary messages |
| the branch of biological anthropology dealing with the primates. | primatology |
| the depiction of some cultural groups, particularly Africans and Native Americans, as exotic, simple, highly sexual, potentially violent, and closer to nature. | primitivism |
| a genus of ape from the early Miocene. | Proconsul |
| projection of the face, as seen in many nonhuman primates and early hominins. | prognathism |
| the class of people who sell their labor and live off a wage, a.k.a. the powerless majority. | proletariat |
| an individual associated with religious change who calls for a renewal of beliefs or a restructuring of the status quo. A prophet’s leadership is usually temporary or indirect. | prophet |
| a superfamily of primates from the early Oligocene that is related to Old World monkeys and is believed to represent the earliest catarrhine primate. | Propliopithecoidea |
| a recruitment practice in which members actively seek converts to the group. | proselytization |
| societies that exhibit some but not all of the features of state societies. | proto-states |
| a very simple set of gestures or utterances that may have preceded the development of human language. | protolanguage |
| the location of an artifact when it is first found. The provenance is normally recorded when the artifact is in situ, or before it has been removed. | provenance |
| the measurable effect of human psychology on human biology. | psychobiological dynamic of health |
| anthropologists who work to make their research, analysis, and products available to the public through publication and presentation of their work in public, easily accessible places. | public anthropologists |
| a domain of social life in which people represent, learn about, and discuss the important issues of the day. | public sphere |
| a hypothesis holding that the evolution of species proceeds in a characteristic pattern of relative stability for long periods of time interspersed with much shorter periods during which many species become extinct and new species emerge. | punctuated equilibrium |
| genus of the earliest primate or proto-primate. | Purgatorius |
| nonnumerical data, such as language, feelings, or impressions, that is normally collected when the researcher is at the research site. | qualitative data |
| originally a pejorative term in American culture for people who did not conform to the rigid norms of heterosexuality; now used as a term of pride among many members of the LGBTQIA+ community to highlight the fluid, constantly changing, and contextual nature of gender and sexuality. | queer |
| a subfield of anthropology that focuses on areas of sociocultural activity distinguished from the presumed norms of heterosexuality and gender identities. | queer anthropology |
| the accumulation of capital through existing relations of racial inequality. | racial capitalism |
| the refusal to mention or talk about race. Racial refusal is a silent form of racism. | racial refusal |
| power intertwined with racial prejudice. | racism |
| a dating technique for organic substances that measures the decay of radioactive carbon in the sample; also called carbon-14 (14C or C14) dating. This is the most widely used technique for dating organic artifacts between 50 and 60,000 years old. | radiocarbon dating |
| a system whereby goods are collected and stored by a leader and later given out or used for public benefit. | redistribution |
| the call for systemic changes to address social problems. | reform |
| rebirth into a new cycle of life, inhabiting a new body of the same or another species. | reincarnation |
| describes methods of determining the relative order of past events through comparisons of two or more artifacts without determining their absolute age; e.g., sample 1 is older than sample 2 because sample 1 was found beneath sample 2. | relative dating |
| a shared system of beliefs and practices that are highly regarded in society. Most often, religion is focused on the interaction of natural and supernatural phenomena. | religion |
| responsibilities to replace a deceased spouse with a new spouse from the same lineage in order to maintain the stability of the family unit. | remarriage obligations |
| transfers of money from workers back to their home countries, usually for their families. | remittances |
| the process of returning human remains, associated funerary objects, and ceremonial items to the originating culture. | repatriation |
| institutions through which the ruling class enforces its control, including the government, administrators, the army, the police, courts, and prisons. | repressive state apparatuses |
| conditions that prevent potentially interbreeding populations from breeding. | reproductive isolation |
| a question that can be proved or disproved through research and observation. | research question |
| lands given to Indigenous tribes as supposedly permanent places for their communities to live and practice their culture, usually through treaty or executive order. | reservations |
| chemical analyses of small amounts of material left intact on surfaces in order to identify the substance. | residue studies |
| the expression of disagreement or dissatisfaction with the social order; may be explicit or implicit. | resistance |
| the act of challenging power and domination. | resistance |
| the scientific practice of conducting experiments or research more than once in order to determine if the findings are accurate. Retesting helps eliminate human and other errors in testing and create a range of accuracy. | retesting |
| the replacement of one social order with a different one, often to create enhanced justice, equality, stability, or freedom. | revolution |
| short for reservation ball, a style of basketball played in Native American reservation communities. | rezball |
| a ritual invoked to seek some sort of redress, remedy, or compensation for an individual by means of supernatural intervention. | rite of affliction |
| a ritual performed by a religious group to affirm, strengthen, and maintain bonds of solidarity. | rite of intensification |
| a ritual that moves a person or group of people from one social category to another, often more highly valued one. Examples of rites of passage include naming ceremonies, initiations, weddings, and funerals. | rite of passage |
| a ritual in which an individual or group marks a social transformation. | rite of passage |
| repeated, patterned action conventionally associated with a particular meaning, often incorporating symbolic objects and actions. | ritual |
| performative acts by which people carry out religious beliefs, both public and private; also called rites. | rituals |
| magically enhanced Internet fraud, mainly targeting foreigners. | sakawa |
| a particular period in early anthropological practices (1870s–1930s) during which tribal cultures were subject to extreme collecting from researchers. The practice occurred because of fears that Native cultures would go extinct and there would be nothing further to study. | salvage anthropology |
| the theory that the particular language you speak influences how you think about reality. | Sapir-Whorf hypothesis |
| the branding, burning, or etching of designs into the skin. | scarification |
| a method of expanding knowledge by asking questions, creating a hypothesis, collecting data, and presenting well-reasoned findings based on evidence. | scientific method |
| the context of a cultural or natural objects that has been moved or disturbed from its original location and is thus no longer associated with its place of origin; for example, a burial that has been moved from its original location due to geological shifts or natural disaster. | secondary context |
| a system of beliefs held by a society that elevates social ideas, qualities, or commodities to a metaphysical, semidivine status. | secular religion |
| a kind of lineage order in which family units called minimal lineages are encompassed by larger groups called maximal lineages, which are subsumed by even larger groups called clans. | segmentary lineage |
| the practice of settling in one place for a period of time, usually a few weeks, then moving to a new site to find fresh resources. | seminomadic |
| a form of monogamy in which two adults have a series of marriages over a lifetime. | serial monogamy |
| a relative dating method that places similar artifacts from the same area in a chronological sequence. | seriation |
| biological categories of male, female, and intersex. | sex |
| differences in physical characteristics other than reproductive organs that appear between males and females of the same species. | sexual dimorphism |
| a size difference between males and females of a species. | sexual dimorphism |
| the assignment of work based on a person’s sex. | sexual division of labor |
| sociocultural identities associated with specific forms of sexuality. | sexual orientation |
| erotic thoughts, desires, and practices and the sociocultural identities associated with them. | sexuality |
| a part-time religious figure who works to connect with deities on behalf of others. | shaman |
| a practice of healing and divination that involves soul travel to connect natural and supernatural realms in nonlinear time. | shamanism |
| a large collection of discarded shells, either food remains or waste piles from other activities. | shell midden |
| the social expectation of a person suffering from a sickness. | sick roles |
| the cause of a person’s ill health that signifies to others how to treat that person socially. | sickness |
| the technique of preparing a new plot by cutting down the trees and shrubs, burning the vegetation to the ground, then tilling the ash into the soil as fertilizer. | slash and burn |
| the nonmonetary resources that people use to gain social status, such as mutual acquaintances, shared cultural knowledge, or shared experiences. | social capital |
| an acknowledgement that one’s social interactions and standing are an important aspect of overall health. | social health |
| the ability of an individual to move up into higher and thus more powerful classes merely by working hard. | social mobility |
| an organized set of actions by a group outside of government aiming at achieving social change. | social movement |
| the division of society into groups that are ranked according to wealth, power, or prestige. | social stratification |
| the hierarchical organization of different groups of people, whether based on racial category, socioeconomic status, kinship, religion, birth order, or gender. | social stratification |
| the organizational framework for a particular realm of culture, such as the family, the economy, or the political system. Social structures combine material culture with practices and ideas. | social structure |
| participation in social relations; how people construct and maintain their personal and group relationships. | sociality |
| a subfield of biology that attempts to explain human behavior by considering evolutionary processes. | sociobiology |
| a concept that is defined according to social criteria (not biological) and varies across cultures. | sociocultural construction |
| of, relating to, or involving a combination of social and demographic factors. | sociodemographic |
| the interrelationship between the diversity of plants and animals, humans’ environments, and the diversity of human culture and language. | socioecological system |
| the interlocking ways in which race, class, gender, and resistance to oppression shape Black women’s bodies and biology. The Sojourner syndrome emphasizes that race, class, and gender are not necessarily multiplied to mean more oppression, but they change the ways people experience oppression. | Sojourner syndrome |
| short for solidarity; a small sum of money given by news sources to journalists at the end of an assignment in Ghana. | soli |
| a practice involving the use of material elements to cause a change in circumstances to another person. | sorcery |
| a remarriage obligation in which the surviving widower (husband) must marry his deceased wife’s sister or another female relative from her family. | sororate |
| an unmarked physical field; a place with no specific cultural meaning. | space |
| money that is exchanged for specific items or services. | special-purpose money |
| a class of individuals that have some common characteristics or qualities. | species |
| a community of speakers sharing a common grammar and vocabulary, as well as a set of understandings about how language is used in different situations. | speech community |
| supernatural being associated with specific activities, such as an earth spirit or guardian spirit (or angel). | spirit |
| a loose structure of beliefs and feelings about relationships between the natural and supernatural worlds. | spirituality |
| a system consisting of two intertwined but distinct sets of institutions, the repressive state apparatus and the ideological state apparatus, which function together to maintain state order and control. | state apparatus |
| forms of print and broadcast media that are financially supported by the state and subject to government control. | state media |
| a formal religious institution with full-time administrators, a set doctrine of beliefs and regulations, and a policy of seeking growth by conversion of new practitioners. | state religion |
| large, stratified, multiethnic societies with highly centralized leadership, bureaucracies, systems of social control, and military forces exerting exclusive control over a defined territory. | state societies |
| the science of collecting and analyzing numerical data in large quantities and inferring proportions in a whole from those in a representative sample, or the numerical data collected and analyzed in this manner. | statistics |
| plural of stratum; in geology and archaeology, distinct layers of deposited natural or archaeological material. | strata |
| a relative dating method that assumes that any cultural or natural artifact that is found within a stratum, or that cuts across two or more strata in a cross-cutting relationship, is younger than the stratum itself. | stratigraphic superposition |
| the process of identifying the order and relative positions of strata. | stratigraphy |
| a branch of geology dealing with the classification, nomenclature, correlation, and interpretation of stratified rocks. | stratigraphy |
| singular of strata; one specific layer of deposited natural or archaeological material. | stratum |
| a suborder of primates that includes lemurs, lorises, and galagos (bush babies). | Strepsirrhini |
| a form of analysis that describes how various aspects of culture fit together and contribute to the integrated whole of culture. | structural functionalism |
| power imbalances that exist at a level above personal interactions and institutions and are based on the accumulated effects of institutional decisions across society and history. | structural inequalities |
| the experience of intersecting, overlapping structures of discrimination (racism, sexism, classism, ageism, etc.). | structural violence |
| violence caused by political and social systems that prevent groups from taking care of themselves in multiple ways. | structural violence |
| the study of culture as a system of symbolic categories embedded in the myths, religion, kinship, and other realms of a culture. | structuralism |
| a theory and method focused on identifying patterns in culture; also includes mythic analysis. | structuralism |
| a belief or practice that is believed to have no credible evidence for its efficacy. | superstition |
| amount of harvest left over after supplying the needs of the household. | surplus |
| the theory that the most evolutionarily fit members of a species will pass on their traits to later generations. | survival of the fittest |
| a cultural response to stress and trauma in Latinx communities. | susto |
| a mutually beneficial relationship between species. | symbiosis |
| an object, image, or gesture conventionally associated with a particular meaning. | symbol |
| something that stands arbitrarily for something else and has no natural connection to its referent. | symbol |
| a theory focusing on how a culture’s symbols affect social and health outcomes. | symbolic approach |
| the resources available to an individual because of honor, prestige, or recognition. | symbolic capital |
| and approach that focuses on the interaction between patient and caregiver(s). | symbolic interaction approach to health |
| a type of nonphysical violence that is manifested in the power differential between social groups and reinforces ideologies that legitimize and naturalize the status quo. | symbolic violence |
| speciation without a geographic barrier. | sympatric speciation |
| an integration or use of more than one religious system. | syncretism |
| the social intersection of comorbidities in health outcomes. | syndemics |
| the intentional mistreatment of certain groups. | systematic oppression |
| power imbalances created by the confluence of interpersonal, institutional, and structural inequalities. | systemic inequalities |
| the ways in which political, economic, and social inequalities are normalized and perpetuated. | systemic oppression |
| the powerful, overarching beliefs according to which the world is organized that influence the ways in which individuals interact with their world. | systems |
| a behavioral condition in which humans encourage wild animals to tolerate human proximity and interaction. | tame |
| a form of body art where a mark, symbol, picture or design is placed on the skin. Tattooing has been practiced for thousands of years. | tattooing |
| the plural form of taxon, used to signify all taxonomic groups. | taxa |
| a specific group or subgroup of organisms. | taxon |
| the science or technique of naming and classifying life. | taxonomy |
| specialized knowledge or skills required to produce objects of material culture. | technology |
| the love of technology; characteristic of societies and eras of increasing technological innovation and its incorporation into everyday life. | technophilia |
| a US federal policy adopted in 1953 that involved voiding the treaty agreements between the federal government and Native peoples, enabling the government to repossess and sell property that had been part of reservations in a process called liquidation. Terminated tribal peoples are no longer federally recognized Native peoples and have no rights to ask for federal services or assistance. Between 1954 and the 1970s, 109 tribes underwent termination. Most were federally restored between the 1970s and the 1990s. | termination |
| the terms (words) we use to speak directly to our kin. | terms of address |
| the terms (words) that are used to refer to our kin. | terms of reference |
| a specific mode of looking at images shaped by the identities of viewer and viewed. | the gaze |
| a supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something. | theory |
| an adaptation that allows the body to control and regulate body temperature. | thermoregulation |
| a collection of objects or artifacts. | three-dimensional collection |
| the postmodern feeling that time is speeding up and global space is shrinking. | time-space compression |
| an animal or plant believed to be spiritually connected to a group of people. | totem |
| a belief and classification system in which a group of humans claims a spiritual kinship with a plant or animal that serves as the group’s emblem. | totemism |
| federal laws that administer trade between states and across federal borders. The law affects the ability of Native nations to establish industries and sell products or services beyond their borders. | Trade and Intercourse Acts |
| traditional knowledge of one’s environment applied to the treatment of maladies. | traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) |
| a technique practiced by many pastoralist groups that combines a settled lifestyle with routine movement. Societies that practice transhumance may move between two permanent settlements in an annual cycle. Another transhumance strategy involves most people residing in a settlement and sending a smaller group out to pasture the animals at certain times of the year. | transhumance |
| herding in a regular, patterned movement from one location to another. | transhumant pastoralism |
| the construction of social, economic, and political networks that originate in one country and then cross or transcend nation-state boundaries. | transnationalism |
| agreements between sovereign entities, in this context Native nations and the United States. | treaties |
| an older term used by anthropologists to refer to pastoralist and horticulturalist societies in which extended family structures provide the primary means of social integration. | tribal societies |
| an old-fashioned term used to describe ethnic groups or groups organized by lineage. Avoided by many anthropologists now because of connotations of primitivism and groupthink. | tribe |
| an animal spirit deity who is very lively and clever and gets into trouble through thoughtless or unconventional actions. | trickster |
| a set or group of objects ordered according to their types. | typological sequence |
| the concept that Earth’s surface was shaped in the past by slow-moving geological processes. | uniformitarianism |
| tracing an individual’s kinship through a single gendered line, either male or female, as a collective social rule for all families within a society. | unilineal descent |
| the idea that all cultures pass through a single set of developmental stages. | unilineal evolution |
| the belief that social systems have operated roughly the same way all over the world at all times past and present. | universalism |
| a Native person who lives in an urban environment; sometimes a negative title used by those living on reservations to refer to Native people who are assumed to have willingly given up their culture, land, and Native identities. | urban Indian |
| rights to use a resource but not to own or sell it. | usufruct rights |
| cultural notions about what is good, true, correct, appropriate, or beautiful. | values |
| principles and standards of behavior that are considered important. | values |
| a category of persons who are ascribed female at birth but adopt a masculine identity later on. | variant female |
| a category of gender other than male or female. | variant gender |
| a category of persons who are ascribed male at birth but adopt a feminine identity later on. | variant male |
| dialects that are not necessarily regional but associated with specific social categories such as groups based on ethnicity, age, or gender. | vernacular |
| acephalous societies in which an array of social groups provide arenas for discussion and consensus. | village democracies |
| the use of visual media as a method of research or its study as a topic of research. | visual anthropology |
| a hypothesis that explains the origins of unique primate traits as adaptations for preying on insects and small animals. | visual predation hypothesis |
| death brought on by psychosomatic belief in cultural and environmental effects. | voodoo death |
| describes a gaze aimed at people who do not know they are being viewed. | voyeuristic |
| the ways in which White people receive advantages at the expense of other populations. | White privilege |
| the idea that White people are a superior race and should dominate society at the expense of other, historically excluded groups. | White supremacy |
| an identity based on the maintenance or pursuit of power and proximity to power. | Whiteness |
| a practice involving the use of intangible means to cause a change in circumstances to another person. | witchcraft |
| a very broad ideology that shapes how the members of a culture generally view the world and their place in it. Worldviews tend to span several realms, including religion, economics, and politics. | worldview |
| a specific outlook or orientation that an individual or group of individuals holds on the nature of the world. | worldview |
| an archaeologist who specializes in the identification of animal remains at an archaeological site. | zooarchaeologist |
| plural form of zoonosis, singular; diseases transmitted from animals to humans, usually involving a wild animal host. Many zoonoses mutate and become more virulent in their human hosts (e.g., COVID-19, measles, HIV, influenza). | zoonoses |
| the notion that each genre of media has its own set of features that suggest certain uses and types of content. | “the medium is the message” |