Anthropology Terms - Alex Gross

Alex Gross - Anthropology Terms

 Enculturation - Enculturation is the gradual gravitation towards, or alignment with, a specific culture. A prime example of Enculturation would be a child who is born in the United States, that moves to India when they are 2 years old, who adjusts to the Indian traditions, the language, and the cultural values that are held by many other people in that area. Another example of this could be looked at in someone in their later life. For example, an adult who is from France, moves to Eastern Europe, and becomes accustomed to the traditions, and might even convert to a religion that is more practiced in that area. They will learn more, and know all of the differences and similarities to what they used to have surrounding them. The difference between this and learning about a specific culture, is that with enculturation, one will become more of a part of that culture, and may even be more aligned with that culture than the one they were born into.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis - The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, claims that the language that we learn and know from our childhood shapes the way we see the world. Every language has different words, for things that need to be said, and we may find some discrepancies within languages. Sometimes there are words in other languages that there is no way to describe for us, without writing an entire essay about it, and there are others that simply have no direct equivalent, but can be described in a sentence or two. In many languages that are used by tribes in more technologically un-advanced areas, we would find that there are no words for typical things that we know and use every day. An example of this is Mencomot an Indonesian word that translates to "pluck", "take", or "swipe", but the deeper meaning is to take something of little or no value, just for the thrill and adrenaline rush that for some becomes present when stealing other things. Bet you can't think of a single English word meaning that! This hypothesis can also be viewed in a slightly different way, by looking at the tenses a language has. English for example has 3, past, present, and future, while some languages, Spanish for example, have hundreds. Some are rarely used, but there are still so many, that it seems like there is always a right or wrong thing to say. It changes the way language works and the world works in Spanish speaking countries, because it is difficult to misinterpret things, and there is always a right or wrong way to say something.