Anthropology Lingo

“What I think is, most women, by training and acculturation, have gotten farther by collaborating than competing.”
– The New York Times

He didn’t trust books in his study of anthropology; he wanted to hear what locals had to say about their lives.
– Mountains Beyond Mountains

Manual scavenging is banned in India but the practice is still commonplace, with people forced into it because of rigid caste rules and the lack of other livelihood options.
– BBC

When she was thirteen, she had a bat mitzvah at a temple in Portland, and during the candlelighting ceremony at the reception, I got called up to light one. If I Stay

But the chief was not well and his memory was not what it had once been. Long Walk to Freedom

Another stumbling block to doing as he pleased was the very idea of chivalry or of civilization which Arthur had first invented and then introduced into his own young mind. The Once and Future King

The patriarch of the Howard clan was Samuel Howard. Outliers

The author has a special and almost Darwinian interest in consanguinity, in the barbed things that are passed on in the blood of people and of horses, like curses, from generation to generation.
– The New York Times

Haitians had a remarkable core culture, but it was buried under years of oppression and poverty. Mountains Beyond Mountains

TC was soft-spoken, slight, and of Vietnamese descent. The 57 Bus

Of course, ethnocentrism is the anthropological term for the attitude that our society is better than any other society now existing, and theirs are OK to the degree that they are like ours.
– Salon

Among the more adventurous films in the Forum section Yang Rui’s “Crossing the Mountain,” a portrait of a southwestern Chinese village, splits the difference between ethnography and avant-garde fiction.
– The New York Times

“Pools are the most interesting public sphere in the country,” said Valdimar Hafstein, a professor of folklore and ethnology at the University of Iceland who studies Icelandic bathing culture.
– Washington Post

He was an encyclopedia when it came to Xhosa genealogy and told me facts about my father that I had never known. Long Walk to Freedom

At a game like this, a gifted human player could always triumph over the game’s AI, because software couldn’t improvise. Ready Player One: A Novel

The most fundamental such distinction is that states are organized on political and territorial lines, not on the kinship lines that defined bands, tribes, and simple chiefdoms. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

“The strongest warriors in Wakanda are the women, and the smartest,” Jordan noted, likening that lineage to the matriarchies found in many African-American communities.
– The New York Times

And once again it became clear that one hundred years after the first Red Scare and some sixty-five after a second, nativism and a mistrust of foreigners are still very much with us. 1919 The Year That Changed America

Mostly, pottery is owned by sedentary societies: what nomad wants to carry a collection of heavy pots, as well as weapons and the baby, every time he or she shifts camp? Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

“The patriarchy is a system where men have all the power. And we’re a big part of the problem,” he adds, showing off. Watch Us Rise

The villagers who still practiced the old Slavist rituals would decorate birch trees, string up flowers and branches, and leave extra offerings for the rusalki. Anya and the Dragon

“North America is exactly like that. There are countless tribal nations throughout this land. In Washington State alone, there are more than thirty tribes.” I Can Make This Promise