UNIT 3 STUDYGUIDE: CH. 15-24
Disclaimer: This guide is not comprehensive for all the information covered in class.
Moreover, it is not intended to provide all information necessary to achieve perfection
on this exam. It is only intended to help you structure and organize your studying
activities.
1) World Systems, Race, and Ethnicity
a. Make sure you understand the impact of colonialism on global culture. What is a
world system and what does it mean in terms of understanding modern global
interactions and globalization?
Colonialism: Political, social, economic, and cultural domination by a external
power for an extended period of time
Colonialism’s impact on global culture: It created whole countries, new groups,
societies, ethnic groups, races, etc.
o Settler countries: large number of European colonists and few natives
o Non-settler countries: large natives, and few European settlers
World System: Based on economic exchange, development, and dominance
o 3 specialization positions
Core: dominant position in world system; nation with advanced
systems of production
Semiperiphery: position in world system intermediate between
core and periphery
Periphery: weakest structural and economic position in the
world system
The World System theory stresses existence of a globally shared culture:
o The spread od industrialization
Economic interdependence between nations
o Emphasizes historic and social linkages
o Led to expansive cultural and social interactions
Many economic and social benefits and success
o Expansion has led to the destruction of local economies, local
environments, and local peoples.
Globalization: the systemic economic, social, and cultural interaction and
sharing between cultures worldwide
Modern Cultures are the result of:
o Colonialism
o World Systems
o Globalization
Identities are shaped by Culture
o Race, Ethnicity, Economics, Kinship, Gender, Marriage, Politics, Religion,
etc.
b. What is race? What is constructed race?c. What does the idea of race mean when
you compare different cultures?
Race is not a scientific biological categorical system, but a social construction of
categories
, Constructed Race: U.S. construction of race
o presumed biological determination
o It is an ascribed status and does not change
o Hypodescent rule
Children are mostly categorized as minority parent’s racial
group
Race changes throughout dif cultures; for example in Japan race is idealized as
homogenous and10% of citizens are minorities. In brazil it is idealized as
heterogeneous, there are multiple racial categories, 40+ races
d. What is ethnicity and how is it different from race?
Race: Cultural Categories based on physical traits
Ethnicity: Self/Group identification with an ethnic group
e. How do we think about ethnic interactions in terms ethnic conflict and coexistence?
Nation-state: a political unit (multi ethnic)
Nationality: identification with a specific nation
Multi-ethnic interactions: Conflict:
o Prejudice: devaluing and stereotyping
o Discrimination: policies and practices that harm
o Cultural biases: based on ethnic status differentiation
o Illuminate the breakdown of multicultural ideas
o Increasing discrimination
Ethnocide, genocide
Forced assimilation
Multiethnic Interactions: Coexistence:
o Shared assimilation: minorities adopt a dominate culture
o Plural societies: interdependence of ethnic groups
o Multiculturalism: assumes and values ethnic diversity
f. When we think about the anthropological idea of cultural categories, focal
vocabularies, and hegemony, how do we apply these in order to explain how cultures
think about race and ethnicity?
Racialism: cultural categories of differences and hierarchies
I don’t get this question
2) Making a Living and Economic Behavior
a. How do anthropologists understand what economics and economic behavior is?
Make sure you know what an adaptive strategies and the five different adaptive
strategies discussed in class.
Economics is the study of the economy, which is a system of resource
production, distribution, and consumption.
Economic behavior: doing what is necessary to sustain human life (food,
clothing, shelter)
Adaptive Strategies: the means of making a living (subsistence), there are 5:
1. Foraging: Hunter-gatherers