Key concepts

Question 1

Belief and Knowledge

Answer 1

Convictions, values and viewpoints

regarded as “the truth” by members of a social group.

Underpinned by known cultural experience.

Question 2

Change

Answer 2

the alteration or modification of
cultural or social elements in society.

may be a result of:
1. internal dynamics within a society
2. contact with another culture
3. consequence of globalisation.

Question 3

Culture

Answer 3

Organised system of symbols, ideas, explanations, beliefs and material production, manipulated and created by humans in the course of their daily lives

Customs by which people organise their physical world and maintain social structure

Not static, homogeneous or bounded, but dynamic and fluid.

Shared social construction of meanings, but is also the site of contested meanings

may be subject to disagreement and conflict within and among communities –> which may include the definition of culture itself

Question 4

Identity

Answer 4

1. The individual or private view of the self OR how an individual is viewed from the perspective of a social group
2. Group identity: e.g ethnic, religious, national identity

Question 5

Materiality

Answer 5

Objects, resources and belongings have cultural meaning

Embedded in all kinds of social relations and practices

Material objects are used by anthropologists to study human experience, e.g materiality of the body

Question 6

Power

Answer 6

1. An essential feature of social relations
2. a person’s or group’s capacity to influence, manipulate and control others and resources.
3. can be understood as the distinctions and inequalities between members of a social group.
4. Some approaches to power focus on structural power and understand power to be everywhere and to contribute to the production of reality.

Question 7

Social relations

Answer 7

1. any relationship between two or more individuals in a network of relationships.
2. It involves an element of individual agency as well as group expectations
3. form the basis of social organisation and social structure.
4. pervade every aspect of human life and are extensive, complex, and diverse.

Question 8

Society

Answer 8

the way in which humans organise themselves in groups and networks.

created and sustained by social relationships and institutions.

can also be used to refer to a human group that exhibits some internal coherence and distinguishes itself from other groups.

Question 9

symbolism

Answer 9

the study of the significance that people attach to objects, actions, and processes

creating networks of symbols through which they construct a culture’s web of meaning.