ANTH 380/Traditional Cultures

ANTH 380/Traditional Cultures

Fall 2009

Final Exam Study Guide

The exam is scheduled for Monday December 14th at 9AM. It will not be cumulative but it will be worth 150 points. There will be questions from both Weiner’s and Crocker’s books.

Politics and Social Control

·  Be familiar with the 4 basic types of political organization identified by anthropologists.

·  How are power and authority distributed in each type?

·  How is order and control maintained in the absence of centralized political authority?

·  What are sodalities? In what types of societies are they found? Why are they important?

·  What are sumptuary rules? In what types of societies are they found? Why are they important?

·  Video: Mending Ways: The Canela Indians of Brazil; The Feast.

Religion and Supernatural

·  How do anthropologists define religion?

·  What are the possible functions of religion identified by anthropologists and other social scientists?

·  What are myths and what functions do they have?

·  What are rituals? What functions do they have in traditional societies? Specifically, what do rites of passage do?

·  Why are ancestors so important in African and Asian traditional societies?

·  Videos: 1) The Cows of Dolo Ken Paye: Resolving Conflict Among the Kpelle; 2) Hungry Ghosts; 3) Seeking the Spirit.

Acculturation

·  What are the stages of culture contact we discussed in class and what happens in each?

·  What is acculturation?

·  What does Rolf Wirsing say happens to health in situations of acculturation?

·  What are diseases of development? What are the different types?

·  What does Bodley mean when he speaks of ecocide?

·  Video: The Trobriand Islanders of Papua New Guinea.

The Canela of Brazil

·  What value(s) were central to Canela culture and how were they manifested?

·  Traditionally, what was the basis of Canela social organization?

·  What are “formal friends” in Canela society?

·  Crocker identifies what he calls “the principal integrative building blocks for the kinship level of Canela social structure”. What are they and how do they operate?

·  In his book Crocker doesn’t write about religion per se; instead he speaks of “affirmation through ritual”. What does he mean?

·  In Canela culture, what is the relationship between ghosts and shamans?

·  Traditionally, what role did sex play in Canela culture? How/why has that been changing?

The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea

·  What does Annette Weiner intend to do in her ethnography? Why does she feel this is significant?

·  What types of changes have the Trobrianders experienced in recent years and how have they reacted?

·  Be familiar with the role that death and mourning play in Trobriand culture and society.

·  Be familiar with Trobriand ideas concerning matrilineality, especially concerning the process of conception and the role of ancestral spirits.

·  Understand the nature of Trobriand chieftanships, including the rights and privileges as well as duties/obligations entailed in being a chief.

·  Understand the relationship between men’s wealth and women’s wealth.

·  Understand the role that mortuary distributions play in the regeneration of matrilineal identity.

·  What does Weiner say regarding the motivation for men’s participation in the kula?

·  Understand the basic connections between bundles, yams and shell ornaments.