CHSE Odisha Elective Anthropology flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Holism in anthropology

The principle that human biology, culture, language and material remains must be studied together as an integrated whole rather than in isolation.

Ethnography versus ethnology

Ethnography is a detailed description of one culture based on fieldwork; ethnology is the comparative synthesis of many ethnographies to build general theory.

Emic and etic perspectives

Emic describes a culture from the insider's own categories and meanings; etic uses the analyst's external, comparative categories. Both are needed in ethnographic interpretation.

Applied anthropology

The use of anthropological concepts, methods and findings to solve practical problems in health, development, education, heritage and policy, often outside academic settings.

Bipedalism skeletal markers

Habitual two-legged walking is indicated by an anteriorly placed foramen magnum, S-shaped spine, short broad pelvis, valgus knee and arched foot with non-opposable big toe.

Australopithecus afarensis

A Pliocene hominin from East Africa, dated roughly 3.9–3.0 million years ago, known from the Hadar 'Lucy' skeleton and the Laetoli footprint trails.

Homo erectus

An early Homo species with larger brain and body than earlier hominins, associated with Acheulian handaxes and the first dispersal out of Africa into Asia and Europe.

Primate defining traits

Grasping hands and feet with opposable thumbs, nails instead of claws, forward-facing eyes for stereoscopic vision, reduced smell, large brain and extended infant dependency.

Clinal variation

The gradual geographic change in a trait's frequency across space, such as skin colour with latitude, showing that human variation is continuous rather than divided into discrete races.

Sickle-cell adaptation

The heterozygous sickle-cell allele gives resistance to malaria, so its frequency is high in malarial regions of Africa and India despite the anaemia risk in homozygotes.

Radiocarbon dating

A chronometric method measuring decay of carbon-14 in organic remains such as bone, charcoal and shell; useful to about 50,000 years and requiring calibration against tree rings.

Law of superposition

In undisturbed sedimentary deposits, lower layers are older than the layers above them, allowing archaeologists to establish relative chronological order of finds.

Three-age system

Thomsen's classification of European prehistory into Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages based on dominant tool materials, later refined by subdivision of the Stone Age.

Levallois technique

A Middle Palaeolithic prepared-core method in which the core is shaped so that a single blow removes a predetermined flake of desired form.

Neolithic Revolution

The transition from foraging to domesticated plants and animals, with polished stone tools, pottery, sedentism and village settlements, beginning around 10,000 years ago in several regions.

Seriation

A relative dating method that orders assemblages or sites by the changing frequency of stylistic traits, producing a sequence from most similar to least similar.

Cultural relativism

The methodological stance of understanding each culture in terms of its own values and categories rather than judging it by the observer's standards.

Unilineal descent

Descent traced through only one parent, either father (patrilineal) or mother (matrilineal), producing corporate lineages and clans with clear membership rules.

Bride price versus dowry

Bride price (bridewealth) is goods or money given by the groom's family to the bride's; dowry is property brought by the bride or her family into the marriage.

Exogamy and endogamy

Exogamy requires marriage outside a defined group such as a clan; endogamy requires marriage within a group such as a caste, class or village community.

Rites of passage

Van Gennep's three-stage ritual sequence of separation, liminality and reincorporation that marks transitions such as birth, initiation, marriage and death.

Reciprocity types

Generalized reciprocity expects no immediate return, balanced reciprocity expects direct return, and negative reciprocity seeks gain at the other's expense.

Band tribe chiefdom state

Service's fourfold political typology: egalitarian bands, segmentary tribes, ranked chiefdoms with central redistribution, and states with centralized coercive government.

Animism and animatism

Animism is the belief that spirits inhabit persons, animals and objects; animatism is belief in an impersonal supernatural force such as mana that can reside in things.

Sacred and profane

Durkheim's distinction between things set apart as sacred and the everyday profane world; religion organizes society around the sacred and reinforces collective solidarity.

Particularly vulnerable tribal groups

A Government of India category for tribes with declining population, low literacy and pre-agricultural technology; Odisha groups include Bonda, Juang, Paudi Bhuyan and Kutia Kondh.

Podu cultivation

Shifting cultivation practised by many Odisha hill tribes, in which forest patches are cleared and burned, cropped for a few years, then left to regenerate.

Dongria Kondh of Niyamgiri

A particularly vulnerable tribal group of the Niyamgiri hills whose opposition to bauxite mining became a landmark case in tribal rights and environmental protection.

Nuakhai festival

A major harvest festival of western Odisha, especially among tribal and farming communities, celebrating the new rice with offerings to the earth deity before eating the new grain.

Participant observation

A fieldwork method in which the researcher lives among a community for an extended period, taking part in daily activities while systematically observing and recording them.

Genealogical method

A fieldwork technique of mapping kin relationships through interviews and diagrams, used to analyse descent, marriage rules, inheritance and social organization.

Informed consent

The ethical requirement that research participants understand the study's purpose, methods and risks and voluntarily agree to take part, with the right to withdraw at any time.

Triangulation

Checking a finding against multiple methods, informants or data sources to strengthen the reliability of ethnographic interpretation and reduce observer bias.