The overall trend in anthropological theory has been from theories that put human
agency at the center of cultural dynamics to paradigms that see evolution as the main
force behind cultural change.
Contemporary, applied ecological anthropologists work to plan and implement policies
aimed at environmental preservation. They also advocate for people who are at risk,
actually or potentially. One of the roles for today’s environmental anthropologist is to
assess the extent and nature of risk perception and to harness that awareness to combat
environmental degradation.
English national income tripled between 1700 and 1815 and increased 30 times more by
1939. Standards of comfort rose, as did prosperity for all but a select few.
Practice theory recognizes that the study of anthropology takes a lot of practice before
resulting in accurate descriptions of a culture.
During his work among the Tiv, Bohannan found that critics played a key role in the
creative process for the production of works of art.
Most Americans are not very precise in distinguishing between the terms race and
ethnicity.
Bourdieu argues that languages with the highest symbolic capital are those that are
better systems of communication.
Worldwide, Islam is growing at a rate of about 2.9 percent annually, versus 2.3 percent
for Christianity.
According to this chapter’s “Focus on Globalization,” American baseball appears to be
more ethnically diverse than American football or basketball.
Industrialization increases mobility, which plays a major role in the disappearance of
extended families in the United States.
In unilineal descent, one’s ancestry is traced through only one line of descent.
Same-sex marriages are not culturally viable institutions.
Diffusion plays an important role in spreading cultural traits around the world.
Ethnocide refers to the deliberate elimination of a cultural tradition through aggressive
policies forcing assimilation.
Most contemporary foragers live in remote areas, completely cut off from contact with
other modern, agricultural, and industrial communities.
Only people living in the industrialized, capitalist countries of Europe and the United
States are ethnocentric.
The sociopolitical organization of foragers tends to be bands.
Ethnography involves the collection of data that is used to create an account of a
particular community, society, or culture.
As the post-World War II framework of nationsthe former Soviet Union and the
socialist and non-socialist countries of eastern Europe and Asiadisintegrates,
multiculturalism based on the U.S. and Canadian examples is becoming increasingly
popular.
One consequence of the ongoing globalization of work and migration is that skilled
Western workers must now compete against well-educated workers in such low-wage
countries as India, where an experienced software programmer earns one-fifth the
average salary of a comparable U.S. worker.
The efficacy of social control depends on how clearly people envision the sanctions that
an antisocial act might trigger.
Biologists have rejected the idea of three great raceswhite, black, and yellowlargely
because it fails to account for Native Americans.
Trade and other economic relations between core and periphery disproportionately
benefit capitalists in the core.
Problems arise with contemporary means of communication, such as texting and online
messaging, because much of what we communicate is a nonverbal reflection of
emotional states.
Syntax refers to the rules that dictate the order of words in a language.
Based on people’s claimed religions, Christianity is the world’s largest, with some 2.2
billion adherents.
The etic perspective refers to a non-scientific perspective.
In modern states, there tends to be much more uniformity in the culture’s artistic
standards compared to in less stratified societies.
According to Bronislaw Malinowski, religion provides people with emotional comfort
during problematic times.
In the caste system of India, failure to adhere to class endogamy rules traditionally
resulted in a ritually impure union.
One of the definitions of state is a centrally organized political unit, a government.
Something, verbal or nonverbal, that stands for something else is known as a
A.transmitter.
B.symbol.
C.taboo.
D.substitute.
E.talisman.
Anthropologists are interested in kinship calculation, which is
A.the position from which one views an egocentric genealogy.
B.the rules people use to determine their ethnic affiliation to a group.
C.the process by which people choose their postmarital residence.
D.the system by which people in a society reckon their kin relationships.
E.people’s emic perspective on family values.
Throughout the many years that Kottak has been doing research among the
nonindustrial Betsileo of Madagascar, he has witnessed the impact of globalization on
their livelihood. All of the following have threatened the traditional fabric of Betsileo
life EXCEPT
A.agricultural intensification caused by population pressure.
B.the breakdown of social and political order, fueled by an increasing demand for cash.
C.the growing threat of cattle thieves, some of them relatively well-educated young
men looking to make some cash.
D.the increased presence of anthropologists collaborating with local leaders to preserve
their ancestral lands.
E.emigration.
Which of the following statements about polygynous marriages is true?
A.They are characteristic of high social instability, as with serial monogamy in southern
California and Washington, D.C.
B.They frequently involve a hierarchical arrangement among the wives.
C.They are associated with male infanticide.
D.They are characterized by there being more than one husband in a single household.
E.They tend to occur in societies that have more men than women.
In the pre-Civil War southern United States, gatherings of five or more slaves were
forbidden unless a White person was present, because
A.resistance was most likely to be expressed openly when Black slaves were provoked
by the presence of White persons.
B.resistance is most likely to be expressed openly when people are allowed to assemble.
C.White persons were curious about the use of the story of Moses that was popular
among slaves at the time.
D.some Whites were eager to join the Black slaves in their plans, some successful, in
establishing free communities in isolated areas.
E.these Whites were actually covert anthropologists eager to study social relations
during these politically difficult times.
Words that clearly descend from the same ancestral word are known as
A.synonyms.
B.subgroups.
C.homonyms.
D.cognates.
E.daughters.
Art can often lead to an intense emotional release, also referred to as
A.hypercommunication.
B.catharsis.
C.exalted symbolism.
D.humor.
E.intensive aesthetics.
Which of the following is NOT a feature of urban life?
A.dispersed settlements
B.high population density
C.social heterogeneity
D.economic differentiation
E.geographic mobility
Why do the Kalabari carve wooden sculptures of spirits?
A.purely for aesthetic reasons
B.as an artifact of colonialism, as the carvings were a form of resistance to colonial
intrusion and were used in voodoo rituals
C.to market and sell them on the world market
D.to manipulate spiritual forces, illustrating that not all sculpture is art
E.to serve as voodoo dolls
With the term sex, anthropologists are referring to biological differences. In contrast,
they define gender as
A.the cultural construction of whether one is female, male, or something else.
B.a political system ruled by men that defines the identity of women.
C.the tasks and activities that a culture assigns to each sex.
D.the marked differences in male and female biology, which vary across cultures.
E.one’s biological identity.
According to Max Weber, prestige is the basis of
A.economic status.
B.political status.
C.social status.
D.power.
E.political capital.
What is the term for the ability to create new expressions by combining other
expressions?
A.displacement
B.diglossia
C.productivity
D.morphemic utility
E.phonemic utility
Culture
A.is the exclusive domain of the elite.
B.is acquired by humans as members of society through the process of enculturation.
C.is being destroyed by electronic media.
D.developed among nonhuman primates around 10,000 years ago.
E.is more developed in industrial nations than among hunters and gatherers.
Which of the following kinds of societies is most likely to have stratum endogamy
(marriage within one’s own group)?
A.band
B.state
C.chiefdom
D.society with segmentary lineage organization
E.tribe
What is pidgin?
A.a partial language that results from primitive tribes’ attempts to learn the language of
a modern industrialized state
B.a mixed language that develops to ease communication between members of different
cultures in contact, usually in situations of trade or colonial domination
C.a rhythmic sublanguage present in any human language as the result of a universally
shared mutation
D.a set of languages believed to be most like the original human language, spoken by a
small population of Indian Ocean islanders
E.metalanguage, developed by computer programmers, that has yielded valuable
insights into the workings of the human brain
A lineal kinship terminology
A.is generally found in societies with patrilineal descent rules.
B.uses two terms to identify ego’s parents’ siblings: one term for both FZ and MZ and
another term for both FB and MB.
C.is often found in association with the distinction between parallel and cross cousins.
D.stresses relationships with collaterals.
E.uses the same term to refer to M and MZ.
Transvestism, when members of one gender (usually male) dress as another (female), is
A.very common in Brazil, given the country’s general acceptance of alternative gender
roles.
B.an example of the biological basis of sexual expression.
C.evidence of the cultural limits in determining gender roles.
D.perhaps the most common way of forming genders alternative to male and female.
E.increasingly popular among gay men in Brazil.
As this chapter’s “Appreciating Anthropology” segment notes, around the world many
contemporary nations are repeatingat an accelerated ratethe process of resource
depletion that started in Europe and the United States during the Industrial Revolution.
Fortunately, however,
A.this resource depletion is very localized, since extractive enterprises have been using
new technologies that completely eliminate negative externalities.
B.the money made from this resource depletion always benefits the host communities
and countries.
C.resource depletion now is more than 80 percent sustainable.
D.today’s world has some environmental watchdogsmany of them anthropologistswho
did not exist during the first centuries of the Industrial Revolution.
E.anthropologists are increasingly being consulted prior to the start of new resource
extraction projects.
Which of the following best illustrates urban applied anthropologists’ ability to help
social groups deal with urban institutions?
A.”culture at a distance” studies among Japanese and Germans in an attempt to predict
the behavior of the enemies of the United States
B.Kottak’s comparative study of development projects from around the world
C.Vigil’s study of gang violence in the context of large-scale immigrant adaptation to
U.S. cities
D.anthropological analysis of the relation between Malagasy descent groups and the
state
E.analysis of differences between personalistic and naturalistic disease theories among
rural poor of the U.S.
What term refers to the existence of “high” and “low” dialects within a single language?
A.displacement
B.diglossia
C.semantics
D.kinesics
E.lexicon
Because music is a cultural universal and musical abilities seem to run in families,
A.everybody, regardless of culture, loves to dance.
B.it is possible to use musical abilities as a biological marker for human races.
C.it has been suggested that music is a concept of a social fiction.
D.anthropologists should investigate the connection between music and formerly
misunderstood kinship arrangements.
E.it has been suggested that the predisposition for music may have a genetic basis.
According to Fredrik Barth’s theories about ethnic identity, ethnic boundaries are most
stable when
A.ethnic groups share a common ancestor.
B.ethnic groups occupy different ecological niches.
C.ethnic groups share the same nation-state.
D.the members of the ethnic groups are highly educated, as with postcolonial states.
E.ethnic groups are culturally very similar and tend to pursue the same goals.
As humans organize their lives and adapt to different environments, our abilities to
learn, think symbolically, use language, and employ tools and other products
A.rest on certain features of human biology that make culture itself a biological
phenomenon.
B.have made some human groups more cultured than others.
C.prove that only fully developed adults have the capacity for culture; children lack the
capacity for culture until they mature.
D.rest on certain features of human biology that make culture, which is not itself
biological, possible.
E.are shared with other animals capable of organized group lifesuch as baboons,
wolves, and even ants.
For the women of Planinica, a Muslim village in prewar Bosnia, singing signaled
A.a series of transitions between life stages.
B.the arrival of spring.
C.that the artisans of the neighboring village were in town to sell their goods.
D.different things to different women.
E.the arrival of soldiers who had finished their military service.
What is a disease?
A.a health problem as it is experienced by the one affected
B.an artificial product of biomedicine
C.a consequence of a foraging lifestyle
D.an unnatural state of health
E.a scientifically identified health threat
Applied anthropology is
A.the purely academic dimension of anthropology.
B.the term used for all anthropological research programs.
C.the use of anthropological data, perspectives, theory, and methods to identify, assess,
and solve contemporary problems.
D.rarely possible, as anthropological studies are not practical in the “real world.”
E.not guided by anthropological theory.
What term refers to the destruction of the culture of an ethnic group?
A.genocide
B.prejudice
C.ethnocide
D.discrimination
E.diaspora
Actors, musicians, and dancers
A.are not artists, since they perform but do not create art.
B.function as parasitic consumers of the creative works of artists.
C.distort and dilute the artistic mastery of other artists.
D.function as intermediaries who translate the works and ideas of other artists.
E.are marginal members of artistic communities around the world.
What best typifies the intervention philosophy of the French empire?
A.carte blanche
B.savoir-faire
C.coup d’tat
D.mission civilisatrice
E.nom de plume
Reflecting today’s world in which people, images, and information move about as never
before, fieldwork must be more flexible and done on a larger scale. The result of such
fieldwork is often an ethnography that
A.challenges anthropologists concerned with salvaging isolated and untouched cultures
around the world.
B.becomes less useful and valuable to understanding culture.
C.is increasingly multisited and multitimed, integrating analyses of external
organizations and forces to understand local phenomena.
D.is more traditional, negating anthropologists’ concerns about defending their field’s
roots.
E.requires researchers to stay at the same site for more than three years.
What helped broaden the study of humanities from fine art and elite art to “folk” and
non-Western arts, along with the creative expressions of popular culture?
A.greater ethnic diversity among professors
B.expanded Common Core standards
C.growing acceptance of the anthropological definition of culture
D.the influence of TV and film globalization of media
E.the general public’s wider acceptance of world entertainment and arts
Social movements worldwide have adopted which term as a self-identifying and
political label based on past oppression but now legitimizing a search for social,
cultural, and political rights?
A.indio
B.indigenous people
C.mestizo
D.autochthon
E.freedom fighter
To what extent can art be isolated from the person who created it? Be sure to include
cross-cultural examples to support your answer.
Answer:Answers will vary
How does economic anthropology differ from classical economics? In what ways can
economic anthropology serve as a safeguard against ethnocentrism?
Answer:Answers will vary
Discuss ways in which order is maintained in societies that lack chiefs and rulers.
Answer:Answers will vary
What are the different kinds of learning? On which kind (or kinds) of learning is culture
based? How is culture transmitted across generations?
Answer:Answers will vary
In what kinds of situations would you expect to find ambilineal descent? Unilineal
descent? Why?
Answer:Answers will vary
What are the major results and implications of food production? How does reliance on
food production affect the social, economic, and political organization of societies that
practice it?
Answer:Answers will vary
Is it contradictory to say that membership in an ethnic group is an ascribed status while
arguing that we negotiate our social identities? Why or why not? How do we occupy
multiple social statuses?
Answer:Answers will vary
Ethnographic research in postsocialist societies is thriving. What are some of the
common problems typical of these societies? Why would an ethnographic approach be
advantageous to addressing these problems?
Answer:Answers will vary
Recalling Chapter 2, on culture, and after reading this brief historical account of
anthropological theory, what do you think is the relationship between individuals and
culture?
Answer:Answers will vary
This chapter’s “Appreciating Anthropology” unit shows that techniques that
anthropologists have used to analyze myth and folktales can be extended to two popular
American fantasy films, The Wizard of Oz and Star Wars. In 2009, U.S. American
movie director James Cameron, a fan of The Wizard of Oz, released the long-awaited
Avatar. If you have seen the movie, compare its structure and symbolic elements in a
way similar to that of how The Wizard of Oz and Star Wars have been analyzed in the
text. If you have not seen Avatar, explain the connection between The Wizard of Oz and
Star Wars.
Answer:Answers will vary
Explain the distinctions among cultural universals, generalities, and particularities, and
give examples of each.
Answer:Answers will vary
What do you think is the relation between theory and methods in anthropology, if they
relate at all?
Answer:Answers will vary
In this chapter, John Whiting’s research is used to illustrate the application of the
scientific method in an anthropological study. What are these steps? Recalling that
complete objectivity is impossible, how did Whiting strive for objectivity and
impartiality in his research on sexual custom and diet?
Answer:Answers will vary
This chapter includes several examples linking marriage practices with issues about
property and inheritance. Describe these examples. Based on what you have learned so
far about marriage, kinship, adaptive strategies, and political systems, can you suggest
ways in which anthropologists could help explain relationships involving property?
Answer:Answers will vary
In today’s world in which people, images, and information move as never before,
people simultaneously experience the local and the global. Explain what this means and
consider its implications for methods in cultural anthropology.
Answer:Answers will vary
Is religion declining or becoming increasingly important in contemporary society?
Why? If you believe that religion is declining, what is replacing it?
Answer:Answers will vary
Briefly describe the nine characteristic field techniques of the ethnographer. How do
they compare with the research techniques you have learned about in courses or
readings in other academic disciplines?
Answer:Answers will vary
Based on the way the text defines imperialism and colonialism, do you think that they
describe phenomena of the past? These terms have been used recently to describe
current international affairs. Find an example of this, and compare the use of the term to
its definition in the text.
Answer:Answers will vary