SOC401 Glossary

 Acculturation

The process by which a culture is transformed due to the massive adoption of cultural traits from another society--it is what happens to a culture when alien traits diffuse in on a large scale and substantially replace traditional cultural patterns.

 Achieved status

a status that is acquired by doing something. For instance, someone acquires a criminal status by committing a crime. Likewise, the status of mother is attained by having a baby.

 Actual behavior

What people really do in their lives rather than what they think they are doing or what they believe they should be doing. In most societies there is a discrepancy between these three kinds of behavior. It is important for anthropologists to distinguish between actual, believed, and ideal behavior when they learn about another society and its culture.

 Adaptive mechanism

A behavior, strategy, or technique for obtaining food and surviving in a particular environment. Successful adaptive mechanisms provide a selective advantage in the competition for survival with other life forms. For humans, the most important adaptive mechanism is culture

 Affinity

A kinship link created by marriage, such as the bond between a man and his wife and her family (in-laws). People who have an affinity relationship with each other are "affine"

 Affirmative action

A program or policy intended to correct the effects of past discrimination in employment, education, housing, etc. Usually affirmative action in the United States includes out-reach programs, hiring goals, set-asides, and/or extra opportunities for members of underrepresented minorities.

 Age grades · SOC401 · Glossary

Age-based categories of people recognized by a culture. In North America, for example, we generally label people as children, teenagers, adults, middle aged, and elderly or senior citizens.

 Age sets

Age grades that are clearly recognized in a culture as distinct identifiable groups of people. They consist of people of similar age and usually of the same gender who share a common identity and maintain close ties throughout their lives. They also pass through age-related statuses together as a group. The transition between these statuses is usually marked by a rite of passage.

 Ambilineal descent

A form of cognatic descent in which individuals can select to trace descent either matrilineally or patrilineally. The decision may be made each generation based on the relative wealth and/or importance of the father's and the mother's family lines.

 Ambilocal Residence

The residence pattern in which a newly married couple has the choice of living with or near the groom's or the bride's family.

 Anomie

A feeling of alienation and isolation from all other people, including family and friends.

 Anthropology

The broad scientific study of human culture and biology. Anthropologists are interested in what it is to be human in all of our many different societies around the world today and in the past.

 Applied anthropology

The branch of anthropology oriented towards using anthropological knowledge for practical purposes.

 Aquatic Foraging

A specialized subsistence pattern that concentrates on fish and/or marine mammal hunting. Aquatic foraging is usually a far more reliable and productive strategy for obtaining food than the diversified hunting and gathering of most foragers who live away from the coasts and major rivers.

 Archaeology

The systematic study of the material remains of human behavior in the past. Archaeologists reconstruct the prehistory and early history of societies and their cultures through an examination and interpretation of such things as house foundations, broken tools, and food refuse.

 Arranged marriage

A marriage partner selection process in which the future bride and groom usually do not participate actively in the decision. Marriages are commonly arranged by parents or their agents.

 Ascribed status

A status that is the result of being born into a particular family or being born male or female.

 Assimilation

The absorption of an individual or minority group of people into another society or group. This is achieved by learning and adopting the cultural traditions of the society to which assimilation occurs.

 Balanced Reciprocity

An economic exchange in which there is an explicit expectation of immediate return. Simple barter or supermarket purchases involve this understanding.

•  Band

The level of political integration in which a society consists only of an association of families living together. Bands are loosely allied by marriage, descent, friendship, and common interest.

 Barter

Trading goods and services directly for other goods and services without the use of money as a medium of exchange.

 Bilateral Descent

The cognatic pattern of descent in which every biological ancestor and descendant is a socially recognized relative.

 Bilineal Descent

The cognatic pattern of descent in which an individual is both a member of his mother's matrilineage and his father's patrilineage.

 Bound morpheme

A morpheme that has meaning but can not stand alone. The prefix dis in the English word dislike is an example.

 Caste

An individual's rigidly ascribed, or inherited, status within society.

 Chiefdom

The level of political integration in which a society has a more or less permanent political leader (i.e., a chief) but no bureaucracy of professional administrators.

•  Clan

A group of people who claim unilineal descent from the same ancestor but who cannot specify all of the actual links. Clans usually consist of a number of related unilineages.