KEY WORDS ANTHROPOLOGY

• Agency


  The ability of individuals to act independently and make their own choices freely.
• Social Class


  A division in society based on social and economic status

  
• Community


  A group of people sharing similar characteristics, and/or interests (location, language, religion, sports etc.)

  
• Cultural Relativism


  Suspending one's own ethnocentric judgement in order to understand and appreciate another culture; interpreting the various aspects of a culture in reference to that culture rather than one's own.

  
• Ethnicity


  The identification of a group based on a perceived shared cultural distinctiveness, expressed through language, music, religion, values, art, literature, family life, food, ritual, public life and material culture.

  
• Ethnocentrism


  Regarding one's own ethnicity as superior to others and/or viewing others only through one's own cultural categories.

  
• Gender


  Culturally constructed notions of what it means to be male or female, depending on the social context.

  
• Personhood


  A social status granted in various ways to those who meet certain criteria on who can become a person.

  
• Sexuality


  One's self-expression as a sexual being

  
• Social Structure


  The distinctive, stable arrangement of institutions (such as the government, criminal justice system, education, religious authorities) whereby human beings in a society interact and live together.
• Ethnography


  Writing about people's cultures, customs, habits and mutual differences, usually based on participant observation.
• Globalisation


  The worldwide process of increasing economic, technological, political and cultural interactions, integration and interdependence of nations.

  
• Kinship


  Sets of relationships considered primary in any society, also called family and relations

  
• Ideology


  A system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy.

  
• Commodification


  Treating something as if it is something you can buy and sell (a commodity)
• Classification


  The process of classifying the world according to specific cultural values and beliefs
• Morality


  Principles (culturally specific) that define what is right and wrong

  
• Socialisation


  The process through which someone learns and internalises their culture's values and beliefs.

  
• Boundaries


  The physical and imagined differences between groups and individuals.
• Resistance


  A range of behaviours that aim at opposing expectations imposed by different forms of authorities

  
• Habitus


  The lifestyle, values, dispositions and expectations of particular social groups that are acquired through the activities and experiences of everyday life.
• Embodiment


  The process through which cultural beliefs and values are incorporated in the physical body.
• Enculturation


  The social process by which culture is learned and transmitted across generations
• Acculturation


  The adoption of cultural traits, such as language, by one group under the influence of another.

  
• Reproduction (social and biological)

  The transmission of existing cultural values and norms and other aspects of society from generation to generation.
• The Self


  The socially constructed understanding of individual and cultural identity that, in people's thinking, distinguishes them from "the Other".
• Virtual community


  A social group that exists and interacts in an online environment.
• The Other


  Anthropologists use this term "the Other" to describe the way people who are members of a particular social group perceive other people who are not members. For example, non-Muslims may perceive Muslims as "the Other". "Othering" may be negative.
• Syncretism


  The hybridization or amalgamation of two or more cultural traditions.
• Suffering


  The human consequences of war, famine, depression, disease, torture, and other problems that result from how political, economic, and institutional power may impact people negatively.
• Subaltern


  Refers to social groups that are socially and politically outside of the hegemonic power structure of the society. This term particularly relates to colonial and post-colonial contexts.
• Social inequality


  The existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society.
• Ritual


  A formalized event, the rules of which are determined by the traditions of a social group, characterized by symbolism and performance. Religion is a significant context for the practice of rituals, but the scope of ritual behaviour extends to other areas.
• Reflexivity


  Anthropologists acknowledge that their own knowledge base, beliefs and perspectives may influence their research and writing.
• Reciprocity


  Mutual exchange or obligation between people: generalized (no expectation of return); balanced (exchange of equal value); negative (one party seeks to benefit at the expense of the other).
• Positionality


  The effect an anthropologist's own subjectivity might have on how he or she interprets observations and experience.
• Politicized body


  The body becomes the topic of political debate, for example, in gender related discourse.
• Mechanized body


  The body may be perceived as a machine consisting of organic parts. Surgical implants of mechanical parts means re-thinking the concept of "the body".
• Marginalization


  Relegating specific groups of people to the edge of society, economically, politically, culturally and socially; limiting their access to productive resources and avenues for the realization of their productive human potential.
• Localization


  A social group's specific adaptation of the influences of globalization.