ANTHROP 3401 Study Guide - Final Guide: Optimal Foraging Theory, Unilineality, Feminist Archaeology
17 Apr 2017
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Document Summary
Social organization = the rules and structures that govern relationships within a group of interacting people. Societies are divided into social units (groups) within which are recognized social positions (statuses), with appropriate behavior patterns prescribed for these positions (roles) People belong to groups on different levels = some crosscut one another; others are hierarchically organized. Trick in archaeology is to figure out how to identify different forms of social organization based only on artifacts: artifacts as symbols. Information about social and political organization is derived from artifacts as material culture. People manipulate material culture to send culturally specific symbolic messages: kinship. Kinship = socially recognized network of relationships through which individuals are related to one another by ties of descent (real or imagined) and marriage. Blends biological descent with cultural rules that define. C. 2. some people as close kin and others as distant kin. Kin groupings condition the nature of relationship between individuals.
