Chapter 11 Terminology

Question 1

Achieved status

Answer 1

Rights, duties, and obligations that accrue (προκύπτουν) to a person by virtue of what they accomplished in their life.

Question 2

Androcentric

Answer 2

A perspective that focuses on what men do in a society, to the exclusion of women.

Question 3

Ascribed status

Answer 3

Rights, duties, and obligations that accrue to a person by virtue of their parentage; ascribed status is inherited.

Question 4

Band

Answer 4

A residential group composed of a few nuclear families, but whose membership is neither permanent nor binding

Question 5

Beraches

Answer 5

Among Plains Indian societies, men who elected to live life as women; they are recognized by their group as a third gender.

Question 6

Bilateral descent

Answer 6

A kinship system in which relatives are traced equally on both mother’s and father’s side.

Question 7

Bilocal residence

Answer 7

A cultural practice in which a newly married couple may live in either the village of the groom of the village of the bride.

Question 8

Cargo system

Answer 8

Part of the social organization found in many Central American communities in which a wealthy individual is named to carry out and bear the cost of important religions ceremonies over the year.

Question 9

Chiefdom

Answer 9

A regional polity in which two or more local groups are organized under a single chief (who is the head of a ranked social hierarchy). Unlike autonomous bands and villages, chiefdoms consist of several more or less permanently aligned communities or settlements.

Question 10

Clans

Answer 10

A group of matri or patrilineages who see themselves as descent from a (sometimes mythical) common ancestor.

Question 11

Codices

Answer 11

Maya texts, long strips of paper, many meters in length when unfolded, made of the pounded inner bark of certain trees; these texts helped analysis interpret Maya hieroglyphics on stelae.

Question 12

Direct acquisition

Answer 12

A form of trade in which a person/group goes to the source area of an item to produce the raw material directly or to trade for it or finished products.

Question 13

Down-the-line trade

Answer 13

An exchange system in which a person/group goes to the source area of an item from group to group, resulting in a steady decline in the item’s abundance in archaeological sites farther from the source.

Question 14

Egalitarian societies

Answer 14

Social systems that contain roughly as many valued positions as there are persons capable of filling them; in egalitarian societies all people have nearly equal access to the critical resources needed to live.

Question 15

Energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence (XRF)

Answer 15

An analytical technique that uses obsidian’s trace elements to “fingerprint” an artifact and trace it to its geological source.

Question 16

Exotics

Answer 16

Material culture that was not produced locally and/or whose raw material is not found locally.

Question 17

Gender ideology

Answer 17

The culturally prescribed values assigned to the task and status of men and women; values can vary from society to society.

Question 18

Gender role

Answer 18

The culturally prescribed behavior associated with men and women; roles can vary from society to society

Question 19

Hopewell

Answer 19

A cultural tradition found primarily in Ohio River Valley and its tributaries, dating from 200 BC-AD 400. Hopewell societies engaged in hunting and gathering and in some horticulture of indigenous plants. The are known for their mortuary rituals, which included charnel houses and burial mounds; some central tombs contained exotics. They also constructed geometric earthworks as ceremonial enclosures and effigy.

Question 20

Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA)

Answer 20

An analytical technique that determines the trace element composition of the clay used to make a pot to help identify the clay’s geological source.

Question 21

Kinship

Answer 21

Socially recognized network of relationships through which individuals are related to one another by ties of descent (real or imagined) and marriage.

Question 22

Matrilineal descent

Answer 22

Un unlinear descent system in which ancestry is traced through the female line.

Question 23

Matrileneage

Answer 23

Individuals who share a line of matrilineal descent.

Question 24

Matrilocal residence

Answer 24

A cultural practice in which a newly married couple live in the bride’s place of origin; it is often associated with matrilineal descent.

Question 25

Mississippian

Answer 25

A widespread cultural tradition across much of the eastern United States from AD 800-1500. Mississippian societies engaged in intensive village-based maize horticulture and constructed large, earthen platform mounds that served as substructures for temples, residences, and council buildings.

Question 26

Moieties

Answer 26

Two groups of clans that perform reciprocal ceremonial obligations for one another; moieties often intermarry.

Question 27

Patrialineage

Answer 27

Individuals who share a line of patrilineal descent

Question 28

Patrilineal descent

Answer 28

A unilineal descent system in which ancestry is traced through the male line.

Question 29

Patrilocal residence

Answer 29

A cultural practice in which newly married couple live in the groom’s place of origin; it is often associated with patrilineal descent.

Question 30

Petrographic analysis

Answer 30

A analytical technique that identifies the mineral composition of a pot’s temper and clay through microscopic observation of thin sections.

Question 31

Political organization

Answer 31

A society’s formal and informal institutions that regulate a population’s collective acts.

Question 32

Ranked societies

Answer 32

Social systems in which a hierarchy of social status has been established, with a restricted number of valued positions available; in ranked societies, not everyone has the same access to the critical resources of life.

Question 33

Shell midden

Answer 33

The remnants of shellfish collecting; some shellfish middens can become many meters thick.

Question 34

Social organization

Answer 34

The rules and structures that govern relations within a group of interacting people. Societies are divided into social units (groups) within which are recognized social positions (statuses), with appropriate behavior patterns prescribed for these positions (roles).

Question 35

Southeastern ceremonial complex

Answer 35

A specific assortment ceremonial objects that occurs in the graves of high-status Mississippian individuals. Ritual exchange of these artifacts crosscut the boundaries of many distinctive local cultures.

Question 36

Status

Answer 36

The rights, duties, privileges, powers, liabilities, and immunities that accrue to a recognized and named social position.

Question 37

Temper

Answer 37

Material added to clay to give a ceramic item strength through the firing process.