Anthropology is the study of humans and their behavior. To study anthropology for the Miller Analogies Test (MAT), you’ll need to focus on the terms and important figures listed here. If you’ve ever wondered about why people act the way they do, you might find anthropology fascinating.
Anthropology terms that appear on the MAT test
Brush up on your knowledge of anthropology by studying these terms and their definitions.
Anthropocentrism (AKA humanocentrism): Belief that humans are the most important creatures in the world
Balanced reciprocity: Exchange of goods in which the value of each good is equal
Caste: A system of dividing society into rigid socio-economic classes
Clan: A group of people united by a real or imagined kinship
Cultural materialism: View that social life is a reaction to the practical problems of a mortal life
Diffusion: Exchange of ideas from one culture to another
Ethnocentrism: Practice of judging another culture based on your own culture’s ideals
Focal vocabulary: Set of words to describe something important to a particular group of people
Genealogy: Study of families and their histories
Generalized reciprocity: Exchange of goods in which the value of each good is not exactly calculated but a fair balance is expected over time
Humanism: Belief that humans are of great value and that science is greater than faith
Indigenous: Being native to a specific place
Joint family: Two or more related families living together which are all part of the same extended family
Kinesics: Interpretation of body language and nonverbal communication
Levirate marriage: The brother of a deceased man marrying his widow by obligation
Linguistic relativity (AKA Sapir-Whorf hypothesis): The idea that language affects the way its speakers think
Matriarchy: Society in which women are the leaders
Multiculturalism: Describes communities that contain multiple cultures and the ideologies that promote such communties
Negative reciprocity: Exchange of goods in which each party intends to profit
Nomad (AKA itinerant): Member of a society that moves around instead of settling in one place
Oligarchy: Power in a society resting with only a small number of people
Patriarchy: Society in which men are the leaders
Redistribution: Altering the distribution of goods and wealth based on specific principles
Religious cosmology: A way of explaining the origin of the universe based on mythology
Structuralism: View that each part of a culture cannot be understood without understanding the culture in whole
Third World: Developing countries, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere
Urbanization: Expansion of cities and urban areas
Westernization: Societies adopting aspects of Western culture
Important figures in the field of anthropology
The following lists important people in the anthropology field you should become familiar with before taking the MAT.
Benedict, Ruth: American anthropologist who wrote The Races of Mankind which uses scientific evidence to challenge racist ideas
Boas, Franz: German-American father of modern anthropology
Geertz, Clifford: American anthropologist who studied symbols
Hurston, Zora Neale: American anthropologist and author during the Harlem Renaissance
Korotayev, Andrey: Russian anthropologist known for cross-cultural studies
Krantz, Grover: American anthropologist who researched Bigfoot
Leach, Edmund: British anthropologist known for ethnographic work
Leaf, Murray: American anthropologist known for South Asia studies
Lévi-Strauss, Claude: French anthropologist who believed that human traits were the same in all geographic locations
Macfarlane, Alan: British anthropologist and expert on the history of England, Nepal, Japan and China
Malinowski, Bronislaw: Polish anthropologist and proponent of participant observation
Mauss, Marcel: French anthropologist and sociologist who analyzed the significance of gift-giving
Mead, Margaret: American anthropologist who promoted a broadening of sexual mores in Western culture
Radcliffe-Brown, Alfred: English anthropologist who developed Structural Functionalism, the belief that society is a system whose parts work together to create stability
Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo: Austrian anthropologist who studied tropical rainforest cultures
