Cultural Anthropology Final Exam with
correct answers
Explain what it means to approach nature and culture as a dichotomy and be able to explain
why anthropologists are critical of this approach. - ANSWERS✔✔ The Nature/Culture
dichotomy is a common oversimplification of the relationship between humans and their
environment, and one that exposes key differences between the traditional "Western"
school of thought and that of most indigenous cultures.
the conceptual separation between nature and human culture in many Western Societies
-Nature: natural, bio-physical
External: plants, trees, animals, insects, weather
Internal (human nature): desire, instinct, hunger, violence
-Culture: social, related to humans
External: cities, civilization, fine art
Internal: self control, denial of desire, demonstration on knowledge
Opposed Western views of Humanity in Relation to Nature
Nature is pure; humans can exist in harmony with nature as a balanced system"
Be able to apply the nature/culture dichotomy to the first two readings of this section. How
was it used or not used by the Brazilian fishing community and Georgia activists? -
ANSWERS✔✔ Brazilian: This article explores the relation between black women's quest for
environmental justice and the struggle for urban land rights. Black women's leadership in
religious communities as intertwined with their central roles in building neighborhoods
and fighting for material resources such as water necessary to sustain them.
"the sea in African religious traditions shapes everyday black culture and environmental
politics in Gamboa de Baixo"
, Georgia: environmental racism has become the rallying cry for many communities as they
discover the contamination of toxic chemicals and industrial waste in their own backyards.
Living next door to factories and industrial sites for years, the people in these communities
often have record health problems and debilitating medical conditions.
Cultural ecology - ANSWERS✔✔ -interested in cultural change
-developed an ecological approach that focused on the adaptation of individual cultures to
specific environmental factors
Activist Anthropology - ANSWERS✔✔ fieldwork and writing explicitly designed to raise
social awareness and promote social change
Ethnoecology - ANSWERS✔✔ a culture's set of environmental practices and perceptions
Traditional Ecological Knowledge - ANSWERS✔✔ knowledge acquired by indigenous and
local peoples over hundreds or thousands of years through direct contact with the
environment. This knowledge is specific to a location and includes the relationships
between plants, animals, natural phenomena, landscapes and timing of events that are used
for lifeways.
Ex. Firehawks
Political ecology - ANSWERS✔✔ political, social, and economic differences account for
uneven distribution of costs and benefits of environmental change
•Attention to environmental degradation
•Conflict over access to resources
•Who controls conservation •Social movements
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