The Essence of Anthropology Key Terms

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Chapter 1

• The Essence of AnthropologyKey Terms

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• anthropologyThe study of humankind, in all times
  and places.
• culture-boundTheories about the world and
  reality based on the assumptions and values of
  ones own culture.

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• applied anthropologyThe use of anthropological
  knowledge and methods to solve practical
  problems, often for a specific client.
• physical anthropologyThe systematic study of
  humans as biological organisms.

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• molecular anthropologyA branch of biological
  anthropology that uses genetic and biochemical
  techniques to test hypotheses about human
  evolution, adaptation, and variation.
• paleoanthropologyThe study of the origins and
  predecessors of the present human species.

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• primatologyThe study of living and fossil
  primates.
• forensic anthropologyField of applied physical
  anthropology that specializes in the
  identification of human skeletal remains for
  legal purposes.

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• archaeologyThe study of material remains,
  usually from the past, to describe and explain
  human behavior.
• linguistic anthropologyThe branch of cultural
  anthropology that studies human language.

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• cultural anthropologyThe branch of anthropology
  that focuses on humans as a culture-making
  species.
• ethnographyThe systematic description of a
  particular culture based on firsthand observation.

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• fieldworkThe term anthropologists use for
  on-location research.
• participant observationIn ethnography, the
  technique of learning a peoples culture through
  direct participation in their everyday life over
  an extended period of time.

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• ethnologyAn anthropologist who studies cultures
  from a comparative or historical point of view,
  utilizing ethnographic accounts.
• holistic perspectiveA fundamental principle of
  anthropology, that the various parts of culture
  must be viewed in the broadest possible context
  in order to understand their interconnections and
  interdependence.

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• informantsMembers of a society in which the
  ethnographer works who help interpret what she or
  he sees taking place.
• medical anthropologyA specialization in
  anthropology that brings theoretical and applied
  approaches from cultural and biological
  anthropology to the study of human health and
  disease.

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• factAn observation verified by several observers
  skilled in the necessary techniques of
  observation.
• hypothesisA tentative explanation of the
  relation between certain phenomena.

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• theoryIn science, an explanation of natural
  phenomena, supported by a reliable body of data.
  
• doctrineAn assertion of opinion or belief
  formally handed down by authority as true and
  indisputable.

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• globalizationWorldwide interconnectedness,
  evidenced in global movements of natural
  resources, trade goods, human labor, finance
  capital, as well as information.