Anthropology Cheat Sheet

The core ideas of Anthropology distilled into a single, scannable reference — perfect for review or quick lookup.

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Quick Reference

Cultural Relativism

The principle that a person's beliefs, values, and practices should be understood in terms of that person's own culture rather than judged against the criteria of another. Cultural relativism does not mean moral approval of all practices, but rather insists that understanding must precede evaluation.

Ethnocentrism

The tendency to view one's own culture as natural, normal, and superior while regarding other cultures as inferior, strange, or backward. Ethnocentrism is a common human tendency that anthropology actively works to counteract through cross-cultural comparison and self-reflection.

Participant Observation

The primary research method of cultural anthropology, in which the researcher lives within a community for an extended period, participating in daily activities while systematically observing and recording social behaviors, rituals, and interactions. This method allows for deep, contextual understanding that surveys and interviews alone cannot provide.

Kinship Systems

The culturally defined networks of relationships based on descent, marriage, and adoption that organize social life in all human societies. Kinship systems determine inheritance, political authority, residence patterns, and mutual obligations, and vary enormously across cultures.

Material Culture

The physical objects, artifacts, and spaces that people create, use, and assign meaning to within their cultural context. Material culture includes tools, architecture, clothing, art, and food, and serves as a primary source of evidence for archaeologists reconstructing past societies.

Ethnography

Both the primary research method and the written product of cultural anthropology. As method, ethnography involves long-term immersive fieldwork in a community. As product, an ethnography is a detailed, descriptive account of a particular culture or social group based on that fieldwork.

Physical Anthropology

The subfield of anthropology that studies human biological evolution, genetic variation, primate behavior, and skeletal biology. Also called biological anthropology, it investigates how humans adapted to different environments over millions of years and how biological and cultural evolution interact.

Linguistic Anthropology

The subfield that examines how language shapes social identity, power relations, cultural worldviews, and thought itself. Linguistic anthropologists study endangered languages, code-switching, language socialization, and the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis regarding the relationship between language and cognition.

Archaeology

The subfield of anthropology (in the American tradition) that studies past human societies through the systematic recovery and analysis of material remains. Archaeologists use excavation, survey, dating techniques, and laboratory analysis to reconstruct ancient lifeways, social organization, and environmental adaptations.

Globalization

The accelerating interconnection of the world's economies, cultures, and populations through trade, migration, communication technology, and the spread of ideas. Anthropologists study how globalization creates new cultural forms through hybridization while also generating inequality, resistance, and the erosion of local traditions.

Key Terms at a Glance

Acculturation:The process of cultural change that occurs when two or more cultures come into sustained contact, potentially involving adoption, blending, or resistance of cultural traits.

Applied Anthropology:The use of anthropological knowledge and methods to solve practical problems in areas such as public health, development, business, and education.

Archaeology:The subfield of anthropology that studies past human societies through the systematic recovery and analysis of material remains such as artifacts, structures, and ecofacts.

Cultural Relativism:The principle that cultural practices should be understood within their own context rather than judged by the standards of another culture.

Enculturation:The process by which an individual learns the norms, values, and behaviors of their own culture, typically beginning in childhood.

Ethnocentrism:The tendency to evaluate other cultures by the standards of one's own, often assuming one's own culture is superior.

Ethnography:A qualitative research method involving immersive fieldwork in a community, and the written account produced from that research.

Fieldwork:The practice of conducting research by living among and directly observing the people being studied, typically for an extended period.

Forensic Anthropology:A specialization applying skeletal biology and archaeological methods to legal contexts such as identifying human remains.

Holism:The anthropological principle of studying all aspects of human life—biological, cultural, linguistic, and historical—as interconnected dimensions.

Informant:A member of the community being studied who provides the anthropologist with information about cultural practices, also called a consultant or interlocutor.

Kinship:Culturally defined relationships based on descent, marriage, and adoption that organize social obligations, inheritance, and group membership.

Liminality:The transitional phase of a rite of passage when an individual exists between their former and future social status.

Linguistic Anthropology:The subfield examining how language shapes thought, social identity, and power relations across cultures.

Material Culture:Physical objects and spaces that people create, use, and assign meaning to, including tools, art, architecture, and clothing.

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