Grade 11 Anthropology, Sociology, and Psychology

HSP 3M

Chapter 1 Questions

1. Key Terms:

Anthropology is the scientific study of humans, including their origins; behavior; and physical, social, and cultural development.

Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind, mental states, and human behavior.

Social science is the scientific discipline involving the organized study of people and their activities and relationships; aims to understand human society, culture, actions, attitudes, and behavior; uses a research inquiry model.

Sociology is the scientific study of human social behavior, including individuals, groups, and societies.

2.             3) I would ask the participants the following three questions: Why did they call the police? Why did they not cover the girls’ lower body? and What factors influenced the supervisor to tell the employees not to call the police?
3.             2) A birthday party would be a situation in my community that relates to the three areas of the social sciences discussed in this chapter. The anthropological aspect would go along with what the culture the people who would be invited came from, the physiological aspect would be why they came to the party, and the sociological aspect would relate to the behavior of these people at the party.

                        3) A career related to social science that interests me would be forensic anthropology. It is related to the social science of anthropology. An understanding of social science would be useful in this career to be able to identify bones and human remains that I would hypothetically be working on.

4.             3) I would like to know more about the involvement of the police in my community. I would also like to know how my tax money is being used to enrich the lives of my fellow Canadians and I would like to know why the Arabic nations of the world hate Israel.

                        4) I think that open questions are the most useful when conduction research because they have more than one correct answer. They would be able to give multiple observations that would fit the criteria of the questions unlike closed questions which only have one correct answer. An open ended question is designed to encourage a full, meaningful answer using the subject's own knowledge and/or feelings. It is the opposite of a closed-ended question, which encourages a short or single-word answer. Open-ended questions also tend to be more objective and less leading than closed-ended questions.

5. Key Terms:

Bipedalism is the trait of habitually walking on two legs.

Fossils are preserved remains of biological matter.

Participant observation is the careful watching of a group, in some cases living with its members and participating in their culture.

Culturally constructed means to be created or shaped by a culture.

Hominin is a human or human ancestor.

Radiometric dating is a process that is used to determine the age of an object, based on measuring the amount of radioactive material it contains.

Culture is the total system of ideas, values, behaviors, and attitudes of a society commonly shared by most members of a society.

Hypothesis is a tentative assumption made from known facts as the basis for an investigation. 

Reflexivity is the practice of reflecting on your own world view, biases, and impact on the culture you are studying.

Ethnocentric is to believe that one's own culture is superior to all others.

An Informant is a reliable and knowledgeable person who provides specific information to an anthropologist studying his or her community.

Subculture is a small group within a larger group that shares a common system of values, beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and lifestyle distinct from those of the larger group.

Ethnography is the written account of a culture.

Kinship is the relationship between two or more people that is based on common people that is based on common ancestry, marriage, or adoption.

Subjective is a type of conclusion shaped by a person's cultural and personal perspective, feelings, and beliefs.

Ethnology is the study of the origins and cultures of different races and peoples.

Objective is a type of conclusions based on facts and data and uninfluenced by personal perspectives prejudice or emotions.

6.             1) An issue that can be investigated in my school is the lack of recycling.

2) How much garbage does the school produce? Are there recycling bins located in the school? How to convince the students to start recycling?

3) I would start researching about this issue by asking the students what they feelings were about recycling. I would need to gather information such as who is willing to recycle and if it would be worth it for the students and the teachers.

7.             1)  The ethnographic study of a culture can be time consuming. Even before an anthropologist is immersed in a culture's natural environment, he must first learn the language and research the culture. This can take an enormous amount of time and it can be extremely dangerous for an anthropologist if he does not understand a culture's traditions and taboos. An anthropologist might observe a culture's daily activity or ritual, and then make inferences about its meaning. However, because of the nature of human biases and cultural differences, an anthropologist might misunderstand or misinterpret an observation. It is important for the anthropologist to ask questions, and interview relevant parties to get a better understanding of cultural practices.
8.             1)  Canadian culture is a term that explains the artistic, musical, literary, culinary, political and social elements that are representative of Canada and Canadians, not only to its own population, but people all over the world. Canadian culture consists of multiculturalism (people with many backgrounds), exquisite words (about, eh, etc.), ice hockey, beer, and poutine.

2)      Canadian culture is very different from other cultures. For example, the culture in Israel is based on the Judaism and in Canada it’s based on some Christian principals.

                        3)  According to this passage, Ellie writes that Canadian say sorry a lot and this can be identified as a cultural behavior. The Canadian attitude is of open mindedness. The typical Canadian attitude is to attempt to seek out and incorporate the cultures of the people that make our country.

9.             1) Mead was a controversial figure because she studied Samoan adolescent girls using participant observation. Freedman said that she was tricked by informants, teenage girls who were highly embarrassed by the intensely personal questions of a foreigner, citing specific rituals that indicated the female virginity.

                        2) Mead and Freedman came to different conclusions using participant observation because Mean used informants for her information whilst Freeman studied its culture.

                        3) Benedict's research was criticized because she studied the culture from a distance. She used all the cultural material available to her, including literature, newspapers, and films to complete her research.

                        4) Some ethical issues of studying the culture of an enemy nation during wartime were that it is hard to know the mental state of people and if they were being stopped by the enemy from taking.

10.             1) The behavior of the Ju/'hoansi show us their culture values when they insult the meat, and their way of hunting.

                        2) It is important for a cultural anthropologist to take notes during an interview so that he remembers all the details for his report.

                        3) The process of participant observation form this excerpt taught me that it is important to ask questions to find out the answers and I learnt not to summer things about others.

                        4) The assumption in this case was made that the Ju/'hoansi would kill the animals with a lot of meat. They didn’t, and in fact they took any animal so that the hunter would not boast of himself to others that he is superior. I have made assumptions about something I heard but may not have understood.