ANT102H5 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Fictive Kinship, Sociocultural Anthropology, Linguistic Anthropology
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ANT102H5 Full Course Notes
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Relativism argues that truth and moral standards are not fixed and absolute for everyone but vary according to time, place, and context. Socio-cultural anthropology holds/suggests that variations in human behaviour must be understood within the cultural or social frameworks which contain them. Eurocentrism - universalizing judgements of other people"s moral values and ethical behavior. Socio-cultural anthropology: culture, like language, operates through symbols (i. e. meaning is constantly conveyed in our every-day actions). Symbol: a word or object or behaviour or action that represents another abstract or concrete thing. Objects with symbolic meanings might include flags, christian crosses, royal crowns, all forms of dress and adornment, but also every-day things like consumer goods. Meaning is highly context dependent - you need to know layers and layers of (culturally specific) context to understand the meaning of a wink. You also need to know when to wink and when not to wink, whom to wink at and to what effect.