godsib

Learned borrowing from Middle English godsib; doublet of gossip; see those entries for more.

lbor

The fireplace also heated water for the godsibs to wash their hands with as they were instructed by the rubric to do before leaving the church.

1920, Courtenay Frederic William Dunn, The Natural History of the Child: A Book for All Sorts and Conditions of Men, Women, and Children, page 233:

[…] the Bumgardners' maid, with Preston and Penelope in tow, was exchanging defamatory gossip with her godsib Ofelia Gomez, Luke Regan's scullion.

1965, Willard Marsh, Week with No Friday:

The Vicosino then went to his godsib and then to the Cornell Peru Project field director for confirmation of […]

1966, Henry F. Dobyns, Paul L. Doughty, Allan R. Holmberg, Cornell Peru Project, Peace Corps Program Impact in the Peruvian Andes: Final Report:

After a man's kin and godsibs, the next allegiance is to his paisanos (fellow countrymen) or […]

1968, Paul L. Doughty, Mary F. Doughty, Huaylas: An Andean District in Search of Progress, page 37:

[…] to members of their own family, intimates (especially their godsibs), and ideally the priest, who usually is too busy to accept all invitations.

1968, Earl W. Morris, Coming Down the Mountain: The Social Worlds of Mayobamba:

[…] where 34 % of testators who mentioned godchildren were homonymous with those godsibs.

2006, David Postles, Joel Thomas Rosenthal, Studies on the Personal Name in Later Medieval England and Wales (Western Michigan Univ.)

The most important people in the baptismal party that processed from Newbold Revel to the church porch were the three people who had undertaken to support the baby's introduction into the Christian faith. […] Godsibs, as godparents were called, were chosen with care and took their responsibilities seriously. […] since a baby was almost always given the Christian name of the most important godsib, his name must provide a clue.

2007, Christina Hardyment, Malory: The Knight Who Became King Arthur's Chronicler, Harper Collins, →ISBN, page 50:

Holinshed's Chronicle says: 'James Earl of Desmond being suffered and not controlled, during the government of Richard Duke of York his godsib and of Thomas Earl of Kildare his kinsman, did put upon the King's subjects […]'

2013, Edmund Curtis, A History of Medieval Ireland (Routledge Revivals): From 1086 to 1513, Routledge, →ISBN, page 306:

(chiefly historical or anthropology) One's sibling or kin via a godfamily tie: one's or one's child's godparent, or one's godchild's parent, or one's godparent's child.


lineality

en-noun

lineality (usually uncountable, plural linealities)

(anthropology, sociology): A reckoning of descent, or way of determining hereditary derivation within human societies.


sublineation

sublineation (usually uncountable, plural sublineations)

At that time, before sublineation had become significant for the local group, banishment would have amounted to dismissing a troublesome individual and his wife and children, rather than an entire sublineage consisting of several families ...

1961, Louis C. Faron, Mapuche Social Structure, page 97:

The larger the lineage, as a general rule, the more segmented it becomes. Sublineation, on the other hand, depends exclusively on the size and "antiquity" of the lineage.

1968, Hugo G. Nutini, San Bernardino Contlá, page 148:

In reviewing the Mapuche case, I will examine how regionally standardized ceremonial places and elaborate symbols and objects of social status have developed and spread across the social and physical landscape by means of the exchange of women and the sublineation of kinship units linked through participation in public ritual and competition over access to, and regulation of, prime agricultural land and other key resources.

1992, Frederick W. Lange, Wealth and Hierarchy in the Intermediate Area, →ISBN:

(anthropology) A system of forming kinship groups that subdivide a major lineage into subgroups of more closely related individuals.


encompassment

encompassment (countable and uncountable, plural encompassments)

It sometimes seems as though the anthropological nostalgia for Culture and the academic imperative to defend our space by defending our concept blinds us to the reality that the processes of encompassment neither leave others alone nor make them Western. Rather, encompassment creates a new terrain and terms for the production of sameness and difference, value and meaning.

2001, Edward LiPuma, Encompassing Others: The Magic of Modernity in Melanesia:

This appears then as a moment of encompassment. The work of the technologist is encompassed by the artist, or the contribution of the facilitator is claimed as part of the creative process (genius, fortune) of the artist themselves.

2007, Amiria Henare, Martin Holbraad, Sari Wastell, Thinking Through Things:

On the level involving encompassment, moreover, women are simply invisible, thanks precisely to their encompassment.

2010, Robert Parkin, Anne de Sales, Out of the Study and Into the Field:

Baumann (2004, 25–27) identifies yet another way of othering as “encompassment,” which means that a larger group constitutes a hierarchy of dominance over subgroups that are included under the condition that they acquiesce to the larger group.

2020, Robert L. Brawley, Luke: A Social Identity Commentary:

(anthropology, sociology) A hierarchical structure such that when two elements of a whole are recognized as opposites, one of them is considered hierarchically superior, while the other is subordinated to the whole.


monogenist

w:Webster's Dictionary#Webster's New International Dictionary 1909

(anthropology, historical) One who maintains that all members of the human race belong to a single species.


third gender

third gender (countable and uncountable, plural third genders)

Coordinate term: third sex

(anthropology) A category (a gender), present in societies which recognize three or more genders, which is neither male nor female; in some societies, the category may contain individuals who are intersex or androgynous, while other societies may categorize transgender people into it. (Compare fourth gender.)


matrimoiety

(anthropology) A descent group coming from the mother's side.


patrimoiety

(anthropology) A descent group coming from the father's side.


cynanthropy

Coined based on Ancient Greek κύων (kúōn, “dog”) and ἄνθρωπος (ánthrōpos, “man; human”).

(anthropology, folklore) A shape-shifting ability between human and canine forms.


domesticant

(anthropology, zoology, botany) A domesticated animal or plant.


sapienization

(anthropology) The development of Homo sapiens (the modern human being) from earlier species.


ancestor worship

The ancient quarians practiced ancestor worship. Even after abandoning faith for secularism, quarians continued to revere the wisdom of elders.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Quarians: Religion Codex entry:

(anthropology, religion) Veneration of the spirits of one’s ancestors.

vooroueraanbidding

veneration of the spirits of one’s ancestors


melanocomous

Borrowed from Ancient Greek μελανοκόμης (melanokómēs), alternative form of μελαγκόμης (melankómēs, “black-haired”) + -ous; from μέλας (mélas, “black”) + κόμη (kómē, “hair”).

bor+

The melanocomous races of men are analogous to animals with black hair

1813, James Cowles Prichard, Researches Into the Physical History of Man:

(dated, anthropology) Dark-haired or black-haired.


ramage

Borrowed from French ramage, from Middle French and Old French ramage, from ram (“branch”) + -age. by surface analysis, rame + -age.

Ramages as such do not enter into alliances, either marital or political. They do, however, provide a basis for the allocation of political authority[…]

1993, Geoffroy Benjamin, “Temiar”, in Paul Hockings, editor, Encyclopedia of World Cultures, volumes V: East and Southeast Asia, New York: G.K. Hall & Co., pages 265–273:

(anthropology) A cognatic descent group.


monogeny

(anthropology, historical) The doctrine that all of the members of the human race have a common origin.


Melanochroi

Coined by Thomas Henry Huxley; see melanochroic.

(anthropology, dated) A division of the human population, consisting of the darker-skinned among the white races.


stem family

(anthropology) A family system in which a couple's firstborn child lives with them in the family home, and that child's spouse moves into the home of said in-laws, so that the younger couple's children are raised in the home of their grandparents. Usually, the younger offspring move out upon marriage. The inheritance, depending on the culture, may or may not be the most favorable to the firstborn.


Abipón

Borrowed from Spanish abipón of American Indian origin.

(ethnography) A member of an extinct people of Argentina and Paraguay.


Abkhas

(ethnography) Alternative form of Abkhaz.


Abor

No thatching grass is available, and so all the houses are thatched with a kind of plant called tara by the Abors, which is very like the tokopat used in many parts of Assam, but the lower stem of the tara is excessively thorny.

1886, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography, page 316:

(ethnography) A member of a people of northern Assam.


Abri Audit

Borrowed from French Abri Audit (literally “Audit shelter”).

bor

(usually capitalized, anthropology) Of or belonging to the prehistoric culture between the late Mousterian and Aurignacian.


folk illness

(medicine, anthropology) A combination of psychiatric and somatic symptoms that are considered to be a recognizable disease only within a specific society or culture.


uxorilocally

(anthropology) In an uxorilocal (matrilocal) manner.


virilocal

Blend of virile + local. From Latin vir+locus.


blondism

Blondism artificially produced in Micronesia and Melanesia as in Polynesia indicates a blond element in the last conquering immigration.

1927, John Macmillan Brown, Peoples & problems of the Pacific, volume 2, page 276:

In the beard latent blondism is likely to come out.

1931, Carleton Stevens Coon, Tribes of the Rif, page 348:

(anthropology) The presence of blond hair and relatively pale skin and eyes in a member of a usually darker race.


abusua

(ethnography) A matrilineal exogamous clan among the Ashanti.


Kalimantan

(anthropology) A member of a tribe or ethnic and linguistic group native to Kalimantan island.


Beothuk

Beothuks (plural)
Beothuk (plural)
Beothic (alternative)
Beothick (alternative)
Beothuck (alternative)

(ethnology) A member of one of the historical aboriginal peoples of Canada.


cyanope

From Ancient Greek κυανῶπις (kuanôpis, “dark-looking”).

uder

On this basis various genotypes may be listed as follows: EEHH - Fast dark, EEHh - Medium dark with a cyanope stage, EeHH - Medium dark with a glaucope state, EdHh - Slow dark with intermediate stage variable.

1946, Reginald Ruggles Gates, Human Genetics, page 95:

The cyanope type (brown eyes, blond hair) and the glaucope type (blue eyes, black hair) probably arose independently as mutations, the glaucope being earlier in the European population, i.e., the mutation to blue eyes probably occurred before the mutation to fair hair.

1953, Alan H. Kelso De Montigny, International Anthropological and Linguistic Review, page 61:

There were too few in the cyanope group of the MacConaill types for comparison to be made.

1955, The Journal of Mental Science - Volume 101, page 541:

(anthropology, genetics, dated) A person with fair hair and brown eyes.


glaucope

From Ancient Greek γλαυκώψ (glaukṓps, “with blue-grey eyes”).

The most numerous in each war period had blue or grey eyes and dark hair (" glaucope ") but the percentage of such types fell from 47 to 40 per cent between the two samples, while those with fair hair and light eyes (" blond ") rose from 16 to 19 per cent.

1957, Eugenics review - Volumes 48-49, pages 112–113:

(anthropology, genetics, dated) A person with dark hair and blue eyes.


Noric

en-adj

Noric (comparative more Noric, superlative most Noric)

more Noric (comparative)
most Noric (superlative)

(anthropology) Of or relating to a racial category proposed by the anthropologist Victor Lebzelter, supposed to be a lighter subtype of the Dinaric, and characterized by tall stature, brachycephaly, nasal convexity, a long face and a broad forehead.


anthroponomic

(anthropology) Relating to anthroponomy.


conehead

(anthropology, archaeology, informal) A person who has undergone cranial modification in order to produce an elongated skull.


rite de passage

en-noun

rite de passage (plural rites de passage)

it seems that the beginning of the decline of this traditional rite de passage should be traced back to the break effected by the Reformation, though the change also had sociological causes, notably the decline of the tightly knit community in which an individual death created an immediate void.

1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 584:

Stravinsky's wistful and brutal “Rite of Spring” has become a rite de passage for choreographers attracted to its rhythmic intricacies.

1977 April 5, Don McDonagh, “Ballet: Stravinsky ‘Rite of Spring’”, in The New York Times:

Males hoping for acceptance must undergo a perilous rite de passage.

Our Fifth Congress, “A Time for Action” was indeed a rite de passage, a coming of age, for adolescent health, acknowledging that this is an important international issue, a universal and long-neglected cause.

1992 July, David Bennett, “Editorial: Adolescent Health—A Time for Action”, in Journal of Adolescent Health, volume 13, number 5, New York, N.Y.: Elsevier Science Publishing Co., →DOI, →ISSN, page 340:

An ailment can be a rite de passage, a childhood illness an essential preliminary to entry into adulthood.

1997, Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, Folio Society, published 2016, page 34:

Parents operate in a culture where views on teenagers and substances are hopelessly polarised. On one side, excess is a rite de passage undergone by all "proper" teenagers.

2002 January 15, Ros Coward, “The trouble with Harry”, in The Guardian:

It would not have been a rite de passage stricto sensu, but it would have encapsulated and condensed symbolically some of what the ephebate as a whole, the true transitional process or initiation, sought to achieve.

2005, Robert Parker, “The Festival Year”, in Polytheism and Society at Athens, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 210:

For generations, the foreign exchange trip has been a rite de passage for British teenagers. True, we Brits rarely improved our language skills significantly as a result of a two-week stay with a continental European family. But we learned other, perhaps even more valuable, life lessons.

2008 June 26, Stuart Jeffries, “Vive la différence!”, in The Guardian:

I spent last year conducting an anthropological study of the British Humanist Association (BHA), an organisation which on first thought might not bring to mind a commitment to rites de passage. For the association, however, providing funerals to those who do without God is a major aspect of its work.

2012 May 14, Matthew Engelke, “What is a good death? Ritual, whether religious or not, still counts”, in The Guardian:

Jayanta Mahapatra’s ‘Grandfather’ encapsulates a past hopelessly trapped in memories of the grandfather’s diary, dating back to the Great Odisha Famine of 1866. Torn, moth-eaten, it remains a prized possession; bringing history, memory and desire seamlessly together. A scroll of despair, the poem becomes a rite-de-passage.

2014 September 6, Sachidananda Mohanty, “A reader’s delight”, in The Hindu:

(chiefly anthropology) A rite of passage.


Tungid

Perhaps derived from Tungus, people native to Northeastern Asia and Siberia.

The Mongolid (Tungid and north Sinid) strain of the prehistoric Japanese must, to a large extent, be attributed to arrivals from Korea by way of the Tsushima straits, attested to by finds of clay vessels with pointed bottoms and with roller-stamped décor such as were made at Sobatu (north Kyushu).

1964, Encyclopædia Britannica: A New Survey of Universal Knowledge, volume 2, page 264:

It is also presumable that the Tungids, who had some contact with the Proto-Chinese, might have adopted the plank-type sled of the latter which could replace their own, which was probably a bark sled.

1969, Asian Folklore Institute, Asian Folklore Studies, volumes 28-30, page 69:

The Yayoi are believed to be of Tungid stock and it is possible that northern mythology percolated to them in the regions of their origin.

1998, R. Weerakoon, Mythology & the Early Asian State, page 137:

physical anthropology
physical anthropology

(anthropology, historical) A racial classification used in physical anthropology as a Mongoloid subrace found in Inner Mongolia and parts of Siberia.


Americanoid

en-adj

Americanoid (comparative more Americanoid, superlative most Americanoid)

more Americanoid (comparative)
most Americanoid (superlative)

(anthropology) Characteristic of or resembling Native American peoples.

(anthropology, dated) Of or related to the race to which Native Americans belong, according to theories that divide humanity into races.


Americanoid

(dated, anthropology, now possibly offensive) A Native American.


Indianoid

(anthropology, dated, offensive) A person of a natural evolutionary origin in the Indian subcontinent, and anthropologically sharing much genetic history with Caucasoids.


anthropogeographic

(anthropology) Relating to anthropogeography


anthropogeography

(anthropology) The study of the geographical distribution of humankind and the relationship between human beings and their environment


anthropogeographical

(anthropology) Of or relating to anthropogeography.


Arabid

(historical, anthropology) A member of an Oriental race, thought to have originated in the Arabian Peninsula, and distinguished from the Mediterranid race by minor differences in facial traits.


berdachism

English settlers, in turn, solidly repressed berdachism in North America, although a score of nineteenth-century texts reveal a lack of sexual assimilation.

2000, John W. M. Hallock, The American Byron, page 19:

(anthropology, now offensive) The state or practice of being transgender or third gender in a Native American society.


uterine nephew

In Dobu, the mother's brother is held to be the harshest of all the relatives. “The motherʼs brother may beat children long after their parents have ceased to do so,” and they are forbidden to utter his name. There is a tender relationship with the “navel,” the motherʼs sisterʼs husband, who is the fatherʼs double, rather than with the father himself. Nevertheless, the father is considered “less harsh” than the motherʼs brother and will always seek, contrary to the laws of inheritance, to favor his son at the expense of his uterine nephew. And, finally, “the strongest of all social bonds” is the one between brother and sister.⁴⁴

1963, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology, New York: Basic Books, page 44:


Piankeshaw

en-noun

Piankeshaw (plural Piankeshaws or Piankeshaw)

Piankeshaws (plural)
Piankeshaw (plural)
Piankashaw (alternative)

From Miami Pinkwaawilenionki (“place of the ash men”).

der

(ethnology) A member of a Native American group of the Miami who lived apart from the rest of the Miami nation, in an area that now includes western Indiana and Ohio.


Mascouten

Mascoutin (alternative)
Mathkoutench (alternative)
Musketoon (alternative)

(ethnology) A tribe of Algonquian-speaking Native Americans, believed to have dwelt on both sides of the Mississippi River adjacent to the present-day Wisconsin-Illinois border after being driven out of Michigan.


anthroponomy

/ˌænθɹəˈpɒnəmi/

(anthropology) The science of the laws of the development of the human organism in relation to other organisms and the environment.

antroponomia

the study of the laws and development of the humans


xanthomelanous

(anthropology, dated) Having yellow, brown, or olive skin and black hair.


liminoid

From liminal + -oid, coined by Victor Turner.

A graduation ceremony might be regarded as liminal, while a rock concert might be understood to be liminoid.

(anthropology) Having characteristics of a liminal experience, but optional and not involving the resolution of a personal crisis.


Assyrogenous

/æsɪˈɹɒdʒɪnəs/

/æsɪˈɹɑd͡ʒɪnəs/

(of ethnic groups, anthropology) Of or pertaining to several ethnic groups known as Assyrians or from Assyria, for example Syrians, Jacobites, Nestorians, and Chaldeans, and arguably also Maronites, Melkites, and Arameans.


Eurafrican

/jəˈɹæfɹəkən/

From Euro- (prefix meaning ‘pertaining to Europe’) + African (adjective, noun), probably modelled after Eurasian. Compare Euroafrican, Euro-African, which are attested earlier.

affix

(anthropology, archaic) Of a person: from the parts of Europe and North Africa surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.

Välimereltä

of a person: from the parts of Europe and North Africa surrounding the Mediterranean Sea


Leiotrichi

From Ancient Greek λεῖος (leîos) and θρίξ (thríx).

(archaic, anthropology) human races with smooth hair


fourth gender

en-noun

fourth gender (countable and uncountable, plural fourth genders)

fourth genders (plural)
fourth-gender (alternative)

(anthropology) A category (a gender), present in societies which recognize four or more genders, which is neither cis male nor cis female; often, such societies consider trans men to constitute a third gender and trans women to constitute a fourth gender, or vice versa.


anthropogeographically

(anthropology) In terms of anthropogeography.


gracilize

en-verb

gracilize (third-person singular simple present gracilizes, present participle gracilizing, simple past and past participle gracilized)

gracilizes (present singular third-person)
gracilizing (participle present)
gracilized (participle past)
gracilized (past)

The apparent absence of any apparent sexual or age-based divisions of labour contrasts strikingly with anatomically modern humans of the Pleistocene in which females appear to gracilize relatively quickly, implying perhaps a sex-based division of labour (Soffer 1994).

2001 June 29, PB Pettitt, “Neanderthal lifecycles: Developmental and social phases in the lives of the last archaics”, in World archaeology, volume 31, number 3:

No exact racial diagnostics can be made on the basis of the preserved cranial parts, but still it is obvious that it refers to the Mediterranide race that began to gracilize.

1986, Anthropologie, volumes 24-25, page 171:

(anthropology) To exhibit a reduction in bone mass due to the process of evolution.


gracilized

en-adj

gracilized (comparative more gracilized, superlative most gracilized)

more gracilized (comparative)
most gracilized (superlative)

The results show a fairly gracilized body build both in males and females, and a morphological convergence of the proportions of the two sexes.

1972 March 2, M Masali, “Body size and proportions as revealed by bone measurements and their meaning in environmental adaptation”, in Journal of Human Evolution, volume 1:

Wade argues that our pre-gracilized ancestors lived in a world closer to Hobbes than Rousseau.

2011, JH Hinshaw, “Darwinian Evolution and Social History”, in Journal of Social History, volume 45, number 1:

(anthropology) Exhibiting a reduction in bone mass as the result of evolution.


gracilization

The last ten thousand years have witnessed a gracilization of the human cranium — and masticatory complex, in particular.

2002, Peter S. Ungar, Mark Franklyn Teaford, Human Diet: Its Origin and Evolution, →ISBN, page 28:

(anthropology) A reduction of bone mass as the result of evolution.


gracilisation

(anthropology) Alternative form of gracilization.


gracilise

en-verb

gracilise (third-person singular simple present gracilises, present participle gracilising, simple past and past participle gracilised)

gracilises (present singular third-person)
gracilising (participle present)
gracilised (participle past)
gracilised (past)

(anthropology) Alternative form of gracilize.


gracilised

en-adj

gracilised (comparative more gracilised, superlative most gracilised)

more gracilised (comparative)
most gracilised (superlative)

(anthropology) Alternative form of gracilized.


Brass Ankles

(anthropology, historical) A triracial isolate group that developed in colonial South Carolina.


house society

Translation of French société à maison, coined by Claude Lévi-Strauss.

(anthropology) A society where kinship and political relations are organized around membership in corporately-organized dwellings rather than around descent groups or lineages.


Dinaric

From Dinara + -ic, after the mountain on the border of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

(anthropology) Of or relating to a subtype of the Caucasoid race, associated with southeastern Europe.


Dinaric

(anthropology) A member of a subtype of the Caucasoid race, associated with southern Europe.


biodistance

Spence [23 ] reported a biodistance analysis of cranial, dental, and postcranial traits in human remains from Teotihuacan showing a preference for patrilocality.

2015 July 23, “Genetic Evidence Supports the Multiethnic Character of Teopancazco, a Neighborhood Center of Teotihuacan, Mexico (AD 200-600)”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI:

(anthropology) A measure of the biological relatedness of historical or prehistoric groups of humans


kinterm

The remaining terms can be defined either by a chain of kintypes or by a succession of kinterm equivalences.

2022, David B. Kronenfeld, Types of Kinship Terminological Systems and How to Analyze Them, page 23:

(anthropology) A term used to describe one or more kintypes.


kintype

(anthropology) A kin relationship expressed in terms of the specific direct relationships involved, such as "mother's brother's son" rather than the more general "cousin".


interpterion

A 10% increase in length occurs during the third trimester, and the interpterion width increases 15%.


lissotrichi

They are more like apes than the lissotrichi, or straight-haired men.

1891, Wood's Medical and surgical monographs, volume 9:

(anthropology, dated) Races of man with smooth hair.


walking marriage

en-noun

walking marriage (plural walking marriages)

(anthropology) In Mosuo culture, a relationship in which partners do not live in the same household, and their children are raised by their mothers and the mothers' families.


schismogenesis

/ˌskɪzəməˈd͡ʒɛnəsəs/

Coined by Gregory Bateson, schism + -o- + -genesis.

In other instances, schismogenesis results in the breakup of the original community, but with one or both factions surviving.

2002, Susan Love Brown, editor, Intentional Community: An Anthropological Perspective, SUNY Press, →ISBN, page 142:

(anthropology) The formation of schisms or divisions.


Zinj

(informal, paleoanthropology, dated) The original specimen of Paranthropus boisei, then known as Zinjanthropus.


Armenoid

(anthropology, historical) A member of a subtype of the Caucasian race, similar to Dinarid but with stockier bodies and slightly darker pigmentation, found mainly in the northern part of Western Asia.


Kitai

From Latin Kitai, from Khitan or , Khitai(n), probably via Uyghur خىتاي (xitay). Cognate with Cathay and Russian Кита́й (Kitáj).

ḲARA KHITĀI (or ḲARĀ KHIṬĀI), the usual name since the viᵗʰ (xiiᵗʰ) century in Muḥammadan sources for the Kitai people, mentioned by the Chinese from the eighth century A. D. onwards, who were probably Tunguz (according to another view Mongol)... From the beginning of the tenth century the Kitai carried on a campaign of conquest, conquered the northern part of China and founded a dynasty which as a Chinese ruling house was called Liao (916).

c. 1913, The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. IV, page 738

(historical ethnography) Synonym of Khitan, in its various senses.


matrician

The society consists of a number of matricians which, as each is exogamous, are linked together by ties of kinship and marriage. This sort of society is very common throughout the islands off the mainland.

1967, New Guinea and Australia, the Pacific and South-east Asia:

However, the household was controlled by its senior women; because of the residence pattern, the men were unrelated outsiders who belonged to different matricians.

1981, Roger M. Keesing, Cultural Anthropology: A Contemporary Perspective, Holt McDougal:

In order of rank, the matricians were the pig, dog, snake, and iguana clans.

1982, Ron E. Roberts, Douglas E. Brintnall, Reinventing inequality: an inquiry into society and stratification, Schenkman Books:

(anthropology) A group or clan claiming matrilineal descent from a (usually legendary) female ancestor


big man

(anthropology) A male individual in a tribe who has great status and influence, especially in Melanesia and Polynesia.


technosignature

Coordinate term: biosignature

(archaeology, anthropology) A phenomenon indicating that a particular technology is or was used by a particular society; (astrophysics, astrobiology) a phenomenon indicating that a particular technology is or was present in some place (for example, a phenomenon suggesting that a Dyson sphere might exist in a certain region of space).


kecak

The kecak is performed as a spectacle rather than a ceremony and new versions are commissioned for festivals and TV.

2000, Simon Broughton, Mark Ellingham, World Music: The Rough Guide, page 125:

(anthropology, music) A type of ceremonial chant in Bali, based on the Ramayana story, where men sit in a circle and imitate the sounds of monkeys.


yo-he-ho theory

yo-he-ho theory (plural yo-he-ho theories)

(linguistics, anthropology) A speculative theory that human language emerged from instinctive noises made by humans during physical exertion, and especially while involved in collective rhythmic labor.


neontocracy

Coined by American anthropologist David Lancy and popularised through his 2008 book The Anthropology of Childhood; modelled on and contrasted with gerontocracy (“society in which elders are esteemed”).

But looking at the neontocracy from up, down, and sideways—that is, cross-culturally, historically, and holistically—leads quickly to the realization that in many cases, institutional attention to families benefits the institutions themselves more than it aids families.

2014, Rachael Stryker, “Chapter 7: On Family: Adoptive Parenting Up, Down, and Sideways”, in Rachael Stryker, Roberto J. Gon, editors, Up, Down, and Sideways: Anthropologists Trace the Pathways of Power, Berghahn Books, page 151:

And, incrementally, the gerontocracy becomes a neontocracy. But I would argue that the neontocracy has, lately, gotten out of control.

2015, David F. Lancy, The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, page 71:

David F. Lancy (2015) argues in his book The Anthropology of Childhood that the ‘neontocracy’ of many modern Western societies is anomalous when compared with the majority of cultures across the world and across known human history.[…]There is less sense [in some gerontocratic contexts] than in neontocracies that children are to be protected, sheltered from work or considered non-economically productive.

2017, Susannah Cornwall, Un/familiar Theology: Reconceiving Sex, Reproduction and Generativity, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 99:

(anthropology) Any society in which young children are highly valued (despite their relatively low social utility in objective terms); the practice, prevalent in the West, of so valuing young children.


Austric

From the first part of the terms Austronesian and Austroasiatic, in turn derived from Latin auster (“south wind”).

(linguistics, anthropology) Pertaining to a proposed macrofamily of languages, including the Austroasiatic, Daic, and Austronesian language families among others


Daic

Ultimately from the name of the Dai language.

(linguistics, anthropology) Relating to the Tai-Kadai language family


desert kite

(anthropology, archaeology) A funnel trap constructed of stone and found in Middle Eastern deserts, intended to trap migrating game animals.


parallel cousin

parallel cousin (plural parallel cousins)

(anthropology) The child of one's father's brother or of one's mother's sister; a cousin related via same-gender siblings rather than opposite-gender ones (the latter being a cross-cousin).


utamawazo

From a blend of Swahili utamaduni (“culture”) and wazo (“thought”); introduced in this sense by Marimba Ani in 1994.

Coordinate term: utamaroho

(anthropology) culturally structured thought or worldview


utamaroho

From a blend of Swahili utamaduni (“culture”) and roho (“spirit”); introduced in this sense by Marimba Ani in 1994.

Coordinate term: utamawazo

(anthropology) A culture's vital energy, which gives it its emotional tone and motivates collective behavior.


cementochronology

(anthropology, paleodemography, criminology) A method for assessing age at death and determining season at death based on the annulation (formation of rings) in tooth cementum.


toposophy

I hope it is clear by now that such networks of names signify not only the tracing of a mental map, but also the evocation of a sort of chorographic practice which results in the accumulation of immigrant capital or, as I mentioned above, place wisdom (toposophy).

2005, Mauro Peressini, Ratiba Hadj-Moussa, The Mediterranean Reconsidered:

Using a human ecological perspective, this essay argues for a reappraisal of indigeneity in a European context, drawing on an ethnology based on topography, topology and, fundamentally, toposophy to transcend the binary and trinary analytical confines of a world divided into Self, Other and, more recently also, Third.

2014, Ullrich Kockel, “Towards an Ethnology Beyond Self, Other and Third: Toposophical Explorations”, in Tradicija ir dabartis, volume 9:

Toposophy is a perspective, allied to what Tim Ingold calls the dwelling perspective, which treats people as organisms immersed in their lifeworlds, as opposed to what he calls the building perspective, which supposes that “people inhabit a world – of culture or society – to which form and meaning have already been attached.

2016, Rudi Van Etteger, Design Principles and Guidelines: Bridging the Gap Between Science and Design:

(ethnology) A branch of ethnology that emphasizes the relationship between people and the place in which they live or from which they come.


MBS

Omaha skewing of the junior terms in 1970–1972, for instance mugur to mean a matrilateral cross-cousin MBS as well as MyB, and ngamu to mean MBD as well as M/MyZ. While this was disappearing in the younger generation, new compounds were[…]

2016 April 11, Felicity Meakins, Carmel O'Shannessy, Loss and Renewal: Australian Languages Since Colonisation, Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, →ISBN, page 102:

(anthropology) Initialism of mother's brother's son.


ethnographic present

ethnographic present (countable and uncountable, plural ethnographic presents)

When he said they hunt buffalo, he was using the ethnographic present- there are no buffalo on the reservation.

(anthropology) The present tense formerly used in ethnographies, even for cultures that no longer existed by the time they were written.


band chief

(anthropology) The chief or headman of a band society.


Levalloisian

From Levallois + -ian. Named after Levallois-Perret, a suburb of Paris where stone tools were found during the 19th century. Attested from the 20th century.

O'Brien regards the Still-Bay as the final development of the Levalloisian, and, like Leakey, assigns it to the end of the Gamblian pluvial.

1902, D.J. Cunningham, “Right-handedness and left-brainedness. Huxley Memorial Lecture”, in Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, page 23:

(archaeology, anthropology) Of or related to certain Middle Paleolithic cultures.


allochronism

(ethnology) The viewing of a different culture as if it were allochronic


Inuit Nunangat

Borrowed from Eastern Canadian Inuktitut [Term?] or Inuktitut ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓄᓇᖓᑦ (inoit nonangat), from Inuktitut ᐃᓄᐃᑦ+ᓄᓇᖓᑦ (inoit+nonangat).

bor+

(ethnology) The collective name of the territories of the Inuit in Canada, including the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, the federal territory of Nunavut, the Nunavik region in northern Quebec, and the Nunatsiavut region in Labrador.


linguistic anthropology

en-noun

linguistic anthropology (usually uncountable, plural linguistic anthropologies)

Compound of linguistic + anthropology. Attested from the 19th century.

Linguistic anthropology is the study of language, first in its origin, as the medium of communicating thought, emotion and volition.

1881, Otis T. Mason, “Progress of Anthropology in America during the year 1880”, in The American Naturalist, page 621:

Additionally, linguistic anthropology is one of the four subfields of anthropology, so my linganth tribe’s work overlaps, unsurprisingly, with the work of archaeologists, biological anthropologists, and, especially, social and cultural anthropologists

2017, James Wilce, Culture and Communication, page xvi:

(anthropology, originally and chiefly US) The branch of anthropology that studies language and language use.


physical anthropology

Compound of physical + anthropology. Attested from the 19th century.

In the meantime I must briefly refer to the doubt that has often been raised about the utility of minute measurements, deep studies of physical anthropology, statistical tables, and elaborate maps,

1890, Gerson Da Cunah, “The nasal index in biological anthropology”, in The Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay, page 533:

By the end of the century, the APS’s membership included the leaders of the American anthropological establishment, whose primary investigative interests were the ethnography, linguistics, archeology, and physical anthropology of the American Indian, within a theoretical structure that was essentially historical.

1997, Jacob W. Gruber, “American Philosophical Society”, in History of Physical Anthropology, page 64:

(anthropology) The branch of anthropology that studies physical aspects of human beings and closely related species.


biological anthropology

Compound of biological + anthropology. Attested from the 19th century.

The following notes on the nasal index in Biological Anthropology have no pretension to perfection, exhibiting, as I am apprehensive they do, many faults of omission and commission,

1890, Gerson Da Cunah, “The nasal index in biological anthropology”, in The Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay, page 530:

Genetics has long made an important contribution to biological anthropology.

1992, Jeffrey Rogers, “Nuclear DNA polymorphisms as tools in biological anthropology”, in Eric Devor, editor, Molecular Applications in Biological Anthropology, page 19:

(anthropology) The branch of anthropology that studies the evolution and biology of human beings.


calceology

A classical compound (modern coinage), with components derived from Latin calcei ("shoes") + Ancient Greek -λογία (-logía, "-logy, branch of study, to speak").

Such is the gist of the laborious Benedict's researches in Calceology, which are valuable in so far as they are based on passages from writers contemporary, or nearly so, with the shoes and shoe-customs which they describe.

1888 September, “Calceolaria Quædam”, in The Antiquary, volume 18, page 96:

Having introduced myself, and having learned that Lyubomir's name was Lyubomir and that his shoes and his good self were Bulgarian (as a science, calceology is still in its infancy), I ascertained that he was a twenty-four-year-old film student from Sofia.

1999, Philippe Meyer, A Parisian's Paris: Chronicle for the Millennium, page 159:

(fashion, anthropology) The study of footwear, especially historical footwear.

Ancient Greek
Latin
calceology
classical compound


ethnographize

en-verb

ethnographize (third-person singular simple present ethnographizes, present participle ethnographizing, simple past and past participle ethnographized)

ethnographizes (present singular third-person)
ethnographizing (participle present)
ethnographized (participle past)
ethnographized (past)

(anthropology) To carry out ethnography.


Chincha

From Spanish Chincha, from Quechua chinchay (“ocelot”).

Chincha Alta
Chincha Province
Chincha people

Chinca (alternative)
Chinka (alternative)

(ethnography, chiefly historical) A native people of Peru.


unilineality

(anthropology) The tracing of descent through ancestors of only one gender.


ethnolysis

Taking as a model the theory of “genetic centers” of N. I. Vavilov as adapted by Blanc (as a theory of “cosmolysis” or “ethnolysis”), Laplace constructed a theory of basal polymorphism, according to which Upper Palaeolithic industry was initially unspecialized (a “synthetotype,” innate in the designation borrowed from the paleontologists) and afterwards divided up into specialized complexes.

1977 March, Leo S. Klejn, “A Panorama of Theoretical Archaeology”, in Current Anthropology, volume 18, number 1, →DOI, page 6:

As regards the tourism function rate, experts generally adopt the principle that if the rate exceeds 100, visitors are dominant and impose their habits and culture on their hosts. In this case we observe the phenomenon of ethnolysis, which is well-known to sociologists.

1996, Louis Dupont, “Planning in Practice in the French West Indies”, in Development Planning: The Test of Facts, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, →ISBN, page 179:

(sociology, anthropology) The dissolution or loss of certain characteristics of an ethnic group.


neoevolutionism

The so-called neoevolutionism or cultural materialism of Childe, however, had been preserved (in the works of R. McC. Adams, Braidwood, and others), as had the environmental school of Crawford, Fox, and Clark. […] Influences from cultural anthropology—neoevolutionism and functionalism—were pulling in the same direction.

1977 March, Leo S. Klejn, “A Panorama of Theoretical Archaeology”, in Current Anthropology, volume 18, number 1, →DOI, page 4:

(sociology, anthropology) A school of anthropology, developed in the mid-20th century, concerned with long-term, evolutionary social change and with the regular patterns of development that may be seen in unrelated, widely separated cultures.


neoevolutionist

The neoevolutionists were related to the evolutionists of the past century by their search for laws, their interest in general and universal models, their confidence in progress, and their optimistic attitude toward historical reconstruction.

(sociology, anthropology) A proponent of neoevolutionism.


Euroafrican

/ˌjʊəɹəʊˈæfɹɪk(ə)n/

From Euro- (prefix meaning ‘pertaining to Europe’) + African (adjective, noun). Compare Eurafrican, which is attested later.

(anthropology) A person with physical characteristics typical of both Europe and Africa.


Dyeus

Learned borrowing from Proto-Indo-European *dyḗws. Doublet of Jove and Zeus.

learned borrowing

Varuna may be related to Οὐρανός, and the inversion of the rôles of this deity and Dyeus as between India and Greece may indicate an ancient rival of the Sky-Father.

1926, V. Gordon Childe, The Aryans: A Study of Indo-European Origins, page 81:

But these myths are on the whole of purely Greek origin, where the original Dyeus was associated with the Sun- and the Moon-myths.[…]Thus among the I.E.s we first have Dyeus, the god of the sky, who was the god of the sum total of the phenomena observed in the sky, the original conception, however powerful, being as yet too confused to have any definiteness about it.

1933, Panjabrao Deshmukh, The Origin and Development of Religion in Vedic Literature, Oxford University Press, pages 93, 126:

ARYAN RELIGION, the religion of the Aryans who settled India and Iran in pre-Zoroastrian times evolved around a supreme sky god known as Dyeus, who was the Allfather of both gods and men and the consort of the Mother Earth.

1985, Roger Pearson, Anthropological Glossary, →ISBN, page 16:

Four or five thousand years ago (around 2500 b.c.) the Aryans, or Indo-Europeans, settled in Iran and India. Their supreme god was Dyeus (thence Zeus, deus, deity, and other words). Dyeus was the shining God of Sky, the giver of rain, the vanquisher of enemies with thunderbolts.

1990, Sophy Burnham, A Book of Angels: Reflections on Angels Past and Present, and True Stories of How They Touch Our Lives, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 119:

“God” to the Aryans was male and took on many forms. Their major gods were connected to the sun, the most important were Agni, Indra, and Varunai. Their main god was Dyeus (Sky God).[…]Dyeus / The God of the Aryans.

2003, Constance Victoria Briggs, The Encyclopedia of God: An A-Z Guide to Thoughts, Ideas, and Beliefs about God, Hampton Roads Publishing Company, →ISBN, pages 23, 68:

The PIE peoples had called their chief god by almost the same name: Dyeus. Like Zeus, Dyeus was a male god of sky and thunder. The Romans picked up on Dyeus too. The name “Jupiter” came from dyeu-pater, PIE for god-father. Later on, the Romans equated Jupiter with Zeus, a kind of double derivation from Dyeus.

2018, Michael Mayerfeld Bell, “Chapter 2: Nature Before Nature”, in City of the Good: Nature, Religion, and the Ancient Search for What Is Right, Princeton University Press, published 2020, →ISBN, page 19:

(linguistics, anthropology, mythology) The daylight-sky god in Proto-Indo-European mythology.


wug

(anthropology) In folk taxonomy, a creature with worm or insect features; colloquially, a bug or creepy-crawly.


cranial index

en-noun

cranial index (plural cranial indices or cranial indexes)

cranial indices (plural)
cranial indexes (plural)

The width of the skull is 18 cm and the length 24 cm, so the cranial index is 75.

(medicine, anthropology) A measure of the elongation or flatness of a head or skull: the maximum breadth of the skull divided by its maximum length, multiplied by 100.

cephalic index

a distinction is sometimes made that the cephalic index applies to living heads and the cranial index to bones, but this is not consistently observed


Mediterranid

(anthropology, historical) A member of a subrace of the Caucasian race, as categorised by anthropologists in the late 19th to mid-20th centuries, said to be prevalent in the Mediterranean Basin and areas near the Mediterranean, especially in North Africa and Western Asia.


joking relationship

joking relationship (plural joking relationships)

(anthropology) A social relationship that allows one person to tease or mock another in a way that would otherwise be viewed as inappropriate.


Naukanski

(ethnology) An ethnic group that lives in far eastern Russia.


descent group

(anthropology) A group of people all descended from a common ancestor, whether real or fictitious, whether traceable through linear genealogies or untraceable; a clan or lineage.


age grade

(anthropology) An organized, culturally defined social category of people with membership based on age; in some societies it is entered automatically when one reaches a certain age, while in others it is entered through an initiation rite and/or the payment of a fee.


age set

(anthropology) An established social category or group consisting of people born during a certain time span who together move through a series of culturally defined age grades.


Wabanaki Confederacy

(anthropology, ethnology) A North American First Nations and Native American confederation of four principal Eastern Algonquian nations.


Sahtú

(ethnology) A Dene First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group living in the vicinity of Great Bear Lake.


totem kin

(anthropology) A human kin or family group bearing the names of a particular totem.


totem stone

(anthropology) Any art form which depicts a totem on a stone or other engraving.


Wabanaki

From the inflected Algonquin root words wab "light, east" and aki "land", meaning people of the first light or land of the dawn.

(anthropology) A confederation of Native American nations/First Nations and their traditional territories that stretches from Newfoundland in the north, to mid-Maine in the south, and parts of Quebec in the west.


simple living

(anthropology) A voluntary lifestyle choice in which one does not own many things or use many modern machines.


Aztlán

Uncertain. One suggested meaning is "place of Herons" or "place of egrets", but this is not possible under Nahuatl morphology: "place of egrets" is Aztatlan. Other proposed derivations include "place of whiteness" and "at the place in the vicinity of tools", sharing the āz- element of words such as teponāztli, "drum" (from tepontli, "log")

(anthropology) The ancestral home of the Aztec peoples.


Koryo-saram

From Korean 고려사람 (goryeosaram), via Russian корё-сара́м (korjó-sarám).

(ethnology) Ethnic Koreans residing in the post-Soviet states.


touiza

From Arabic تويزة, from Kabyle tiwizi, from Kabyle [script needed] (variously given as iwiss or aws, “to help”), or from equivalent terms in other Berber languages.

der

tweeza (alternative)
tiwiza (alternative)
tiwizi (alternative)
twiza (alternative)
tawiza (alternative)

(ethnography) A form of voluntary collective labor in North Africa.


Siberian Yupik

(ethnology) A member of a Yup'ik people residing along the coast of the Chukchi Peninsula.


Inuvialuit

(ethnology) An Inuit people who live in the western Canadian Arctic region.


Xanthomelanoi

Coordinate term: Xanthochroi

(dated, anthropology) The xanthomelanous division of the human population.


Veddoid

Anthropologists have classified these people as Veddoid after the Vedda tribes of Ceylon, and assign to this group the Senoi and Sakai hill-tribes of Malaya, and other backward peoples of south Celebes and on the Engano and Mentawei Islands off the west coast of Sumatra.

1981, D. G. E. Hall, History of South East Asia, page 6:

(anthropology, historical) A subtype of the Australoid race which includes the Vedda people of South India and others.


disharmonism

en-noun

disharmonism (usually uncountable, plural disharmonisms)

Oftentimes the result of intermixture is a disharmonism, in which the broad Alpine head is conjoined with the longish face of the Teuton, or the reverse.

1898, The Popular Science Monthly, volume 52, page 54:

(anthropology, archaic) A disharmonious mixture; the combination of traits from different races.


FBD

FBD (countable and uncountable, plural FBDs)

Even more, cross-cousins on the mother's side (MBS and MBD) are called by different terms – the same as for M and MB, respectively – than those on the father's side (FBS and FBD). Finally, FB is called by the same term as F,[…]

2009 June 24, Jack David Eller, Cultural Anthropology: Global Forces, Local Lives, Routledge, →ISBN, page 196:

(countable, anthropology) Initialism of father's brother's daughter.


FZD

FZD (countable and uncountable, plural FZDs)

By this view, the eastern distinction MBD + FZD goes with matrilateral cross - cousin marriage , whereas the[…]

1980, Marie J. Adams, James J. Fox, Professor of Anthropology Research School of Pacific Studies James J Fox, The Flow of Life: Essays on Eastern Indonesia, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 31:

(anthropology) Initialism of father's sister's daughter.


MZS

Tura refers to a woman's brother and to her male parallel cousins (MZS, FBS) […]

2012 January 11, Catherine J. Allen, The Hold Life Has: Coca and Cultural Identity in an Andean Community, Smithsonian Institution, →ISBN:

(anthropology) Initialism of mother's sister's son.


MZD

Moreover, in the framework of the Turkish campaign against cousin marriage, the MZD is considered as dangerous as the FBD in terms of genetic risk. Nevertheless, many Alawi informants maintain that the MZD is genetically the least[…]

2015 January 1, Alison Shaw, Aviad E. Raz, Cousin Marriages: Between Tradition, Genetic Risk and Cultural Change, Berghahn Books, →ISBN, page 90:

(anthropology) Initialism of mother's sister's daughter.


FZS

The marriage principle for cousins. can define FZS and MBD as the FZS-MBD cross cousins, because they are not only gender-crossing with ... the FZS-MBD cross-cousin marriage sets the minimum boundary for the incest taboo, through myth.

2013 May 7, Jianxiong Ma, The Lahu Minority in Southwest China: A Response to Ethnic Marginalization on the Frontier, Routledge, →ISBN, page 103:

(anthropology) Initialism of father's sister's son.


oFBS

qetsk - oB, oFBS, oMZS, etc. - older brother or cousin, male/female[…]

2017 October 31, Marianne Ignace, Ronald E. Ignace, Secwépemc People, Land, and Laws: Yerí7 re Stsq'ey's-kucw, McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, →ISBN, page 324:

(anthropology) Initialism of older father's brother's son; father's brother's son older than oneself.


oMZS

(anthropology) Initialism of older mother's sister's son; male maternal cousin older than oneself.


MSiS

The Dafla sibling and cousin terminology differs considerably from that found in Abor - Miri . ... distinct terms are used for the corresponding maternal cousins ( MSiD, MsiS ), and age distinctions are not made in the xC terms.

1941, Paul K. Benedict, Kinship in Southeastern Asia:

(anthropology) Initialism of mother's siblings's son; male maternal cousin.


MSiD

The Dafla sibling and cousin terminology differs considerably from that found in Abor - Miri . ... distinct terms are used for the corresponding maternal cousins ( MSiD, MSiS), and age distinctions are not made in the xC terms.

(anthropology) Initialism of mother's siblings's daughter; female maternal cousin.


yFZS

In Ego's own generation , all cousins are called by the same terms as ego's own siblings : adax = OB = OFBS = OFZS = OMZS = OFZS muoluo = OBW = OFBSW = OFZSW = OMBSW = OMZSW ( adaz older than ego ) nexmuo = YB = YFBS = YFZS = YMBS[…]

1989, Chinese University of Hong Kong. New Asia College, 新亞學術集刊:

(anthropology) Initialism of younger father's sister's son; father's sister's son younger than oneself.


yFBS

(anthropology) Initialism of younger father's brother's son; father's brother's son younger than oneself.


oFBD

10. clas QB , 82 brother , sister OFMBD , OFBD, OMZD , OFZSD , OFZDSD , OFMBS , OFBS , OMZS , OFZSS , OFZDSS . 11. size.ge ' cousin FZD , MBD , OF2S , OMBS 12. -Inà'ac ofzs , OMBS cousin 13. htco MF , MM , DC maternal grandparent[…]

1987, Leland Donald, Themes in Ethnology and Culture History: Essays in Honor of David F. Aberle:

(anthropology) Initialism of older father's brother's daughter; father's brother's daughter older than oneself.


yFBD

The term wachi for yFBD appears to have no equivalent in the case of MZD , suggesting that distinctions of relative age are a concern primarily among patrilateral kin . An absence of symmetric alliance is suggested by the distinctions[…]

1988, Alf Hornborg, Dualism and Hierarchy in Lowland South America: Trajectories of Indigenous Social Organization:

(anthropology) Initialism of younger father's brother's daughter; father's brother's daughter younger than oneself.


yFZD

The term okopurwa for yFZD and yZH would be consistent with FZ marriage, while okopurwa for SW can be best explained as an extension of its application to S. The significance of the term wahrei for yFZD is obscure.

(anthropology) Initialism of younger father's sister's daughter; father's sister's daughter younger than oneself.


oFZD

(s)me7steméws male and female who are siblings or cousins to each other siblings or cousins of opposite sex as speaker ... oFZD, oMBD, etc. older sister or cousin male/female qetsk oB, oFBS, oMZS, etc. older brother or cousin[…]

(anthropology) Initialism of older father's sister's daughter; father's sister's daughter older than oneself.


oMBD

(anthropology) Initialism of older mother's brother's daughter; mother's brother's daughter older than oneself.


oFZS

(anthropology) Initialism of older father's sister's son; father's sister's son older than oneself.


sumptuaries

From sumptuary (adjective) + -ies (variant of -es (suffix forming the regular plurals of nouns)).

Archaeologists are good at identifying chiefly societies in several orthodox ways. The primary ways highlight material patterns which indicate ranking and differential access to resources (e.g., variability in sumptuaries, better diet, elite tombs, central places, monuments, etc.).

2013, George F. Lau, “Familiar Others: Kin, Collectivity and Authority”, in Ancient Alterity in the Andes: A Recognition of Others, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →OCLC, page 60:

(chiefly anthropology) Things (especially luxurious or sumptuous possessions) that a person owns.


Okipa

(anthropology, religion) A major religious ceremony conducted by the Mandan people.


social cue

(sociology, anthropology) A verbal or non-verbal signal expressed through the face, body, voice, motion, and used to guide conversations as well as other social interactions by influencing impressions of and responses to others.


outfit doctor

An outfit doctor was initiated by the relative whose place he was to take and whose outfit he inherited.

1926, Edwin M. Loeb, “Pomo Folkways”, in University of California Publications in Anthropology, Archaeology & Ethnology, volume 19, number 2, page 326:

There was none of the specialization of shamans found in adjacent areas. The social pattern demanded no rattlesnake shamans, no weather shamans, no bear shamans, no outfit doctors, no exclusive poisoners.

1935, Cora Du Bois, “Wintu Ethnography”, in University of California Publications in Anthropology, Archaeology & Ethnology, volume 36, number 1, page 88:

Outfit doctor: No supernatural experience required. Technique "picked up" by watching such a doctor practice or serving as one of his seconds. Outfit: feather headdress; antidotes such as rocks, parts of snakes and frogs, feathers of hawk, eagle, crow, or owl (hawk feathers especially potent); cocoon rattle (4 cocoons, handle 1 ft. long); double crane-bone whistle; no clothing except headdress.

1936, Harold E. Driver, “Wappo Ethnography”, in University of California Publications in Anthropology, Archaeology & Ethnology, volume 36, number 3, page 197:

(anthropology) A doctor (shaman) in certain cultures who was a doctor by virtue of their magical paraphernalia and the techniques they learned, rather than from supernatural experiences such as dreams and visions.


sympathetic magic

The witch who carried out the baking technique used this form of sympathetic magic to arouse desire in correspondence with the flaming heat of the oven.

1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 53:

(anthropology) A type of magic based on imitation or correspondence.


chaîne opératoire

(anthropology, archaeology) The technical processes and social acts involved in the production, use, and eventual disposal of artifacts; used to guide step-by-step analysis.


unilineal evolution

unilineal evolution (usually uncountable, plural unilineal evolutions)

Of course, when we speak in broadly evolutionary terms, to do so need not imply the simplistic notion of unilineal evolution, with the suggestion that human developments always follow the same sequential pattern.

2008, Colin Renfrew, Prehistory: The Making of the Human Mind, Modern Library, →ISBN, page 89:

(social sciences, anthropology) The theory, now considered obsolete, that societies evolve in a single direction toward complexity, progress, and civilization.


Eweland

(anthropology, ethnology) The traditional homeland or domains of the Ewe people.


OSL

(physics, geophysics, geology, paleontology, anthropology, archaeology) Initialism of optically stimulated luminescence.


patripotestal

(anthropology) In which the male side holds the authority.


matripotestal

(anthropology) In which the female side holds the authority.


aquatic ape theory

(anthropology, evolutionary theory) The idea that Homo sapiens evolved certain traits as a result of adapting to a more aquatic habitat.


stoned ape theory

(anthropology, evolutionary theory) The idea that Homo sapiens evolved around and adapted to the ingestion of magic mushrooms, increasing the species' empathetic communication and sparking the cognitive revolution.


multiface

Unifacial and multifacial tools are, on average, the largest tools at JAAP-1 while edge-only and bifacial tools tend to be similar in average size and somewhat smaller than the unifaces and multifaces.

1988, John F. Doershuk, Plenemuk Mound and the Archaeology of Will County, page 153:

Multifaces have at least one flake scar not originating on an edge on more than two faces ( Plate 10.5 ) .

1988, Charles W. Markman, Putney Landing, page 200:

As a general rule across the site, the usage patterns of bifaces differed significantly from the usage of multifaces or unifaces.

1988, Anthropological Papers - Issues 79-81, page 72:

(archaeology, anthropology) A stone tool constructed by chipping off flakes from every side.


cultural phylogenetics

For a critique of cultural phylogenetics that is nevertheless supportive of cultural evolution theory, see Borgerhoff Mulder, Nunn, and Towner 2006.

2011, Alex Mesoudi, Cultural Evolution, University of Chicago Press, page 230:

Focusing on just a single aspect of cultural phylogenetics—homology of man-made objects—exposed many avenues for future theoretical and methodological developments in sociocultural evolution:[…].

2016, Ilya Tëmkin, “Chapter 16: Homology and Phylogenetic Inference in Biological and Material Cultural Evolution”, in Fabrizio Panebianco, Emanuele Serrelli, editors, Understanding Cultural Traits, Springer, page 308:

In sum, the biggest challenge to cultural phylogenetics remains that, despite the methodological compatibility with biological phylogenetics, many of the concepts and mechanisms of the latter cannot be applied to cultural evolution.

2019, Larissa Mendoza Straffon, “Chapter 8: The Uses of Cultural Phylogenetics in Archaeology”, in Anna Marie Prentiss, editor, Handbook of Evolutionary Research in Archaeology, Springer, page 157:

(anthropology) The use of techniques from phylogenetics to study the evolutionary history of relationships between humans and between groups of humans, as well as of cultural memes and practices.

kulturelle Phylogenetik

use of techniques from phylogenetics to study the evolutionary history of human relationships


pyroculture

pyroculture (countable and uncountable, plural pyrocultures)

pyrocultures (plural)
pyro-culture (alternative)

Montanus (1671:22) however commented that: “Greenery would abound more if the natives did not burn the areas where they wander”, without at all appreciating the pyroculture that had been practiced by the Tasmanians for millennia as an innovative and successful environmental management strategy (Bird et al. 2008).

2011, John Paull, “Environmental Management in Tasmania: Better Off Dead?”, in Daniel Niles, Godfrey Baldacchino, editors, Island Futures: Conservation and Development Across the Asia-Pacific Region, page 155:

Despite the absence of farmed crops (i.e., maize, beans, and squash) and agriculture, it is clear that the western North American landscape was highly managed through fire maintenance (or pyroculture) for thousands of years (e.g., articles in Blackburn and Anderson 1993).

2015, Shannon Tushingham, Jelmar W. Eerkens, “Hunter-Gatherer Tabacco Smoking in Ancient North America: Current Chemical Evidence and a Framework for Future Studies”, in Elizabeth Anne Bollwerk, Shannon Tushingham, editors, Perspectives on the Archaeology of Pipes, Tobacco and Other Smoke Plants in the Ancient Americas, page 216:

In the words of a recent scientific review of the effects accomplished by the ‘ecological engineering’ of traditional fire practitioners, ‘pyrodiversity begets biodiversity’. This a conscious cultural economy of fire in stark contrast to the organised irresponsibility of industrial pyroculture toward the ecological consequences of its burnings, of enclosed fires hidden behind ignition switches and powerpoints.

2020, Jeremy Walker, More Heat Then Life: The Tangled Roots of Ecology, Energy and Economics, page 60:

(ecology, anthropology) The use of controlled burning, chiefly by hunter-gatherers, as a form of ecological engineering to manage plant and animal distribution in a habitat.

The driving force of pyroculture was a flow of light-giving heat from burning firewood; thus converted solar energy. But for the first time in the history of life, the prime shaping force of an energy-dissipating structure sprang from human ingenuity. Fire masters created technological artefacts such as the torch and the fireplace to conduct their new energy economy, which soon established ecological dominancy. Pyroculture happened to be a very successful evolutionary strategy.

2005, Frank Niele, Energy: Engine of Evolution, page 94:

Around 1.6 million years ago, the Homo erectus inhabitants there emerged as a “pyro-culture,” using high temperature fire to create stone and bone implements (Gheorghiou & Nash 2007:14; Karlin and Julien 1994:153).

2014, Jordan Anthony Burich, "Catching Fire: Toward a Cognitive-Processual Analysis of Cypriot Pyrotechnics and Sacred Imagery During the Bronze Age", thesis submitted to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, page 23

Whatever the nature of the initial discovery, specialized 'pit-smelters' and larger free-standing furnaces were gradually developed. Colonizing descendants of migrating Copper and Bronze Age peoples, especially seafaring merchants and traders, would have spread the lore of copper-sourcing as they went; their cultural packages included pyroculture as well as agriculture. These twin skills spread together with their owners across the landscapes of Neolithic southern Europe over almost four millennia.

2016, Mike Leeder, Joy Lawlor, GeoBritannica: Geological Landscapes and the British Peoples, unnumbered page:

(anthropology) The culture and technology developed through the domestication of fire by early humans.


avuncuclan

Combination of avuncular and clan. Coined by Lawrence J. Cunningham.

(anthropology) A societal structure, where sons are raised by their maternal uncles.


transegalitarian

From trans- + egalitarian. Coined by John E. Clark and Michael Blake in 1989. Popularized by Brian Hayden in 1995.

Rather than attempt to revive these encumbered terms, I prefer to use Clark and Blake's (1989) term “transegalitarian” to refer to societies that are neither egalitarian nor politically stratified (“politically stratified” societies include chiefdoms with relatively fixed classes and a hierarchical settlement pattern).

[1995, Brian Hayden, “Pathways to Power: Principles for Creating Socioeconomic Inequalities”, in T. Douglas Price, Gary M. Feinman, editors, Foundations of Social Inequality (Fundamental Issues in Archaeology), New York, NY: Springer, →DOI, →ISBN, page 18:

These characteristics […] match those employed by anthropologists as M. Sahlins to explain the ‘big-man’ concept⁴¹—but see⁴² for a critique. This concept, together with that of ‘aggrandizers’ in transegalitarian societies⁴³ has been used within the context of Late Neolithic and Copper Age Iberia^(44,45).

2023 July 6, Marta Cintas-Peña, Miriam Luciañez-Triviño, Raquel Montero Artús, Andrea Bileck, Patricia Bortel, Fabian Kanz, Katharina Rebay-Salisbury, Leonardo García Sanjuán, “Amelogenin peptide analyses reveal female leadership in Copper Age Iberia (c. 2900–2650 BC)”, in Scientific Reports, volume 13, →DOI, article 9594, page 2:

(anthropology) Organized beyond the limits of an egalitarian society but lacking clear social stratification or political centralization.


headshaping

Although headshaping does have Late Aceramic Neolithic precedents on Cyprus, there is no evidence for this practice during the Chalcolithic.

2013, A. Bernard Knapp, The Archaeology of Cyprus, page 274:

(anthropology) The cultural practice of flattening or otherwise shaping the cranium.


chippage

chippage (usually uncountable, plural chippages)

(anthropology) A pattern of chipping, as seen in stone tools.

(anthropology) The debris resulting from chipping.


ur-myth

(anthropology, mythology) A myth believed to be a precursor or prototype to all existing myths.


Australo-Melanesian

(archaic, anthropology) A member of a grouping of various people indigenous to Melanesia and Australia, sometimes also including some groups found in parts of South and Southeast Asia.


penis-cover

(anthropology, Egyptology, very rare) A covering or concealment of the penis found on certain statues in Ancient Egypt.


Nordid

(anthropology) A member of the Nordic race according to Swedish anthropologist Bertil Lundman. They are light-eyed, generally light-haired, often tall and slender, with low and long skulls.


ancestor spirit

ancestor spirit (plural ancestor spirits)

(anthropology, religion) The spirit of a human that has died, often venerated in religious ceremonies.


beloid

en-adj

beloid (comparative more beloid, superlative most beloid)

more beloid (comparative)
most beloid (superlative)

From Ancient Greek βέλος (bélos, “arrow, dart”) + -oid.

der

In norma verticalis his cranium is distinctly ovoid, almost beloid, i.e. it is not broad enough to permit us to state definitely that it is not Egyptian, although its shape is by no means a common one in the pure Egyptian.

1987, Ahmed Osman, Stranger in the Valley of the Kings, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, Publishers, →ISBN, pages 124–125:

I managed a slight nod. Even that sent paroxysms of beloid agony through my neck and throat.

2005, L. E. Modesitt, Jr., The Eternity Artifact, New York, N.Y.: Tor Books, →ISBN, page 222:

(especially zoology, anthropology, rare) Resembling an arrow, particularly in having a narrow and pointed shape; arrowlike.


time discipline

(anthropology, sociology) A concept applied to social and economic rules, conventions, customs, and expectations governing the measurement of time, the social currency and awareness of time measurements, and people's expectations concerning the observance of these customs by others.


Proto-Australoid

(anthropology, historical) Belonging or relating to a prehistoric racial group, propounded by Roland Burrage Dixon in 1923, that developed into the later Australoids.


Proto-Australoid

(anthropology, historical) A member of this racial group.


Phalian

From German Fälish, deriving from Fälen, meaning "plain", coined by Hans F. K. Günther.

(anthropology, Nazism) Of or relating to a postulated member of a subtype of the Caucasoid race.


Phalian

(anthropology, Nazism) A postulated member of a subtype of the Caucasoid race.


identicide

(anthropology, sociology) The deliberate, systematic and targeted demoralization and destruction of the cultural elements representing the identity of a people, with the intent to erase the cultural narrative and memory of that people.


ardipith

(anthropology, paleontology) Any of the hominids of the extinct genus Ardipithecus.


ardipith

en-adj

ardipith (comparative more ardipith, superlative most ardipith)

more ardipith (comparative)
most ardipith (superlative)

(anthropology, paleontology) Of or pertaining to the hominids of the extinct genus Ardipithecus.


origin myth

(anthropology, religion) A type of myth that explains the beginnings of a natural or social aspect of the world.


Sibirid

The Sibirid race is considered by Eickstedt a "contact form" between the Europid and Mongoloid racial circles resulting from the Mongolization of an ancient Europid type.

1964, Ethnic Origins of the Peoples of Northeastern Asia, volume 2, page url:

(anthropology) A member of the Mongoloid race according to Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt, found among indigenous Siberians in North Asia.


Turanid

(anthropology) A human phenotypical classification thought to be a transitional race between Caucasoid and Mongoloid, and is associated with Central Asians.


Sinid

From Medieval Latin Sina (“China”) and -id.

(anthropology, historical) A historical racial classification and term used in human physical anthropology as a Mongoloid subrace commonly found throughout East Asia and is associated with Chinese, Korean, and Japanese people.


Proto-Mongoloid

(anthropology, historical) A human phenotypical classification thought to be the ancestor of the Mongoloid race. It consists of various subtypes found in Southeast Asia, Japan, and among indigenous peoples of the Americas.


Baltid

(anthropology, historical) A member of the Caucasoid race concentrated in northeastern Europe.


Spock generation

the Spock generation (canonical)
Spock Generation (alternative)

(anthropology, sociology) The generation of people who were influenced by the ideas of Dr. Benjamin Spock.


patrimonialization

(museology, anthropology) The process of adding meaning to objects or intangible culture.


Eskimoid

Eskimoid (comparative more Eskimoid, superlative most Eskimoid)

more Eskimoid (comparative)
most Eskimoid (superlative)

(anthropology) Resembling or characteristic of the Eskimo people.


Litorid

(anthropology, historical) A member of a subtype of the Mediterranid race, similar to the Dinarid and Armenid.


dolichoblond

(anthropology) A dolichocephalic person with blond hair.


Alpinid

(anthropology, historical) A member of the Caucasoid race characterized by neotenous facial features and stockier build.


Lappid

From Lapp + -id. Coined by Swedish anthropologist Bertil Lundman.

(anthropology, historical) A member of the Caucasoid race, characterized by short stature and stocky build caused by adaptation to cold climate.


Atlantid

(anthropology, historical) A subtype of the Caucasoid race resulting from the Iron Age-era blend of Nordid and Mediterranid concentrated mainly in Celtic-inhabited regions.


Ethiopid

(anthropology, historical) A subtype of the Caucasoid race transitional to the Negroid race resulting from proto-Caucasoid migrations in East Africa.


rhodesioid

rhodesioid (comparative more rhodesioid, superlative most rhodesioid)

more rhodesioid (comparative)
most rhodesioid (superlative)

Homo rhodesiensis
Homo rhodesiensis#Translingual

(anthropology, obsolete) Of or relating to Homo rhodesiensis, a former species describing the "Rhodesian Man", a Middle Stone Age fossil found in northern Rhodesia.


Bushmanoid

Bushmanoid (comparative more Bushmanoid, superlative most Bushmanoid)

more Bushmanoid (comparative)
most Bushmanoid (superlative)

(anthropology, dated) Resembling or characteristic of the Bushmen of southwestern Africa.


etics

(social sciences, anthropology) The use of an etic approach.


emics

(social sciences, anthropology) The use of an emic approach.


grade-taking

(anthropology) A social system under which individuals rise in status and authority by performing a series of ceremonies.


Negritid

(anthropology, historical) A member and subtype of the Australoid race, similar to Veddoid, which is characterized by very small stature and dark skin, and includes the Aeta, Andamanese and Semang peoples.


Melanesid

(anthropology, historical) A proposed subrace of the Australoid race, coined by Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt in 1934.


Polynesid

(anthropology, historical) A member of a proposed subrace associated with Pacific Islanders that originated in Southeast Asia and spread throughout the Pacific in ancient times.


Polynesid

Polynesid (comparative more Polynesid, superlative most Polynesid)

more Polynesid (comparative)
most Polynesid (superlative)

(anthropology, obsolete) Being a member or pertaining to characteristics of this racial classification; it is said to contain a set of distinct characteristics due to founder effect and genetic drift.


mimetic desire

en-noun

mimetic desire (countable and uncountable, plural mimetic desires)

Coined by French historian, literary critic, and philosopher of social science René Girard in 1961.

coin

Having transcended his own mimetic desires, [Peter] Thiel was now free to capitalise on those of others.

2025 May 10, Orlando Reade, “The deification of René Girard”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 17:

(philosophy, anthropology) A desire that is imitative, and not related to the desired object's intrinsic value, based on the idea that human desires arise from imitation and competitive behavior in groups.


cross-sibling

Ifaluk society even forbids smoking in the presence of one's cross-siblings, because it involves movements and gestures with sexual connotations.

1998, Charles William Nuckolls, Culture: A Problem That Cannot Be Solved, page 65:

(anthropology) An opposite-sex sibling or parallel cousin.


Proto-Mediterranean

Protomediterranean (alternative)
proto-Mediterranean (alternative)

It is clear, from what we have said, that the greatest purity of the Leucodermic type is to be found among the Nordics; because only the southern branch, on its road through Mediterranean Africa or in the Mediterranean islands themselves, met that strongly hybrid population which may be called Proto-Mediterranean, which must have been derived from the crossing of the Crô-Magnon with the Combe-Capelle and the Negroids of Grimaldi.

1921, Prof. V. Giuffrida-Ruggeri, “Europe: Ethnology, The Hybrid Origin of the Mediterraneans”, in Man, A Monthly Record of Anthropological Science, volumes 20-21, page 181:

Mediterranean region
Mediterranean region

(anthropology, archaeology) Of a specific human cranial type, associated with populations in the Mediterranean region during the Mesolithic period.