Anthropological Terms & Definitions

Terms
Acculturation
     As defined by Anthropology Terms (Roddy), acculturation is when a one culture is transformed due to an outside influence from another culture and is changed completely or is wiped out. For example we can find several examples of this during the 16th century and during the Victorian Age. In the 16th century the Americas were being colonized by a Renaissance Europe, who weren't very fond of the natives and so gave them two options: either die, or convert to Christianity. Sometimes this wasn't the case and there were temporary peace treaties installed. However, sooner or later the natives either died, converted to Christianity, or lasted long enough to live during land grants like today. One extraordinary story of the defiance of European intimidation was the Inca Empire, who rejected European culture and values. In the end, the Inca Empire fell in flames due to a 40 year campaign by the Spanish, which lasted from 1532 to 1572.
     The second instance, during the victorian age, mostly regarded tribes in the Amazon and in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the Amazon, there was a slow process of converting the tribes to Christianity. It wasn't a smooth process, many beatings and killings were involved along with a discrimination of the natives. After World War One, the Amazon was found to have several petrol hotspots, and these hotspots just happened to be on native soil. Long story short, many natives died. In Sub-Saharan Africa the biggest problem was slavery, especially in the Congo. The Congo, at the time ruled by Belgium, ran a ruthless economy based on rubber. If you were a slave and you 1.) didn't act "civilized" (meaning you didn't convert to European culture) or 2.) didn't meet your rubber production quota, you would have one of your hands chopped off. If one of those things happened again, your other hand would be cut off.

Transculturation
      According to Anthropology Terms (Roddy), transculturation is when a person or several people go(es) to a different society and adopts their culture. One good example of transculturation that everyone in the Post Oak classes of 22' and 23' will be familiarized with is the story of Roger M. Keesing, who in 1962 spent an entire year living with the primitive tribe of the Kwaio people. During his time there he became fluent in their language and became a well respected member of their society, only leaving because he had reached his psychological limit and had to go back to his real home. Another story that definitely does not fall under Anthropological terms is the story of primatologists such as Jane Goodall, who went and "lived" with Chimpanzees. Again, not an anthropological example of transculturation, but definitely one of primatology.  

Comments

  1. Gabe AvritscherSeptember 9, 2019 at 6:54 AM

    Good job on the examples for each term. They added historical value to them.

    ReplyDelete

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