The experience of the African American community of Corona, New York, who
prevented developers from degrading their neighborhoods with an elevated train, is an
example of:
a. institutional racism.
b. personal racism.
c. racial ideology.
d. resisting racism.
e. reverse racism.
Max Weber referred to the opportunities that individuals have to improve their quality
of life and realize their life goals as:
a. elite prestige.
b. life chances.
c. prestige status.
d. life stances.
e. elite power.
Decisions about what is displayed as fine art typically reflect:
a. wealth and power stratification.
b. egalitarianism.
c. collective decision making.
d. gender equality.
e. cultural relativity.
Which of the following is described as a lack of attraction to others?
a. homosexuality
b. bisexuality
c. asexuality
d. heterosexuality
e. sexual violence
Anthropological research illustrates that people make a religious tradition come alive in
their own context through local expressions and which of the following?
a. creative adaptations
b. strict adherence to scripture
c. universal beliefs
d. standardized rituals
e. traditional customs
Which of the following cultures has generally NOT constructed large social networks
based on descent and kinship connections?
a. United States
b. Nuer
c. Maori
d. Samoan
e. Lu
Anthropologists make great efforts to protect informants’ anonymity:
a. in publications, although it is acceptable to use subjects’ real names in research notes.
b. for communities, but not when discussing lives of community members.
c. when working in their own societies, but this is not necessary if working abroad.
d. when referring to individuals in research notes and publications.
e. when writing about sensitive topics within a community.
The concept of kinship groups based chiefly on biological assumptions and the nuclear
family consisting of solely a mother, a father, and their children is:
a. a nearly universal, cross-cultural understanding of kinship.
b. a Euro-American ideal.
c. a stable model that matches the lived experience of most Americans.
d. proven to be the best structure for society.
e. unfamiliar as a cultural icon.
Scientists who study fossil remains of our early human ancestors are called:
a. paleogeneticists.
b. odontologists.
c. paleoanthropologists.
d. creationists.
e. archaeologists.
What kind of anthropologists explore ancient rift valleys and deep caves looking for
ancient landforms with fossils of human ancestors to understand human evolution?
a. prehistoric archaeologists
b. evolutionary biologists
c. paleoanthropologists
d. Darwinian anthropologists
e. paleoprimatologists
Sociolinguistics is defined as:
a. a nonstandard variation of a language that is particular to a specific region.
b. the study of the development of language over time, including its changes and
variations.
c. alternating back and forth between more than one linguistic variant depending on the
context.
d. the idea that variation in languages appears gradually over distance between places.
e. the study of the intersection between language and systems of power such as race,
class, and age.
Which of the following statements about mental maps of reality is false?
a. Mental maps of reality consist of ideas or rules about how people should behave in
particular situations or toward certain other people.
b. They help us navigate our experiences by organizing sensory data.
c. Mental maps of reality can be challenged and redrawn.
d. An example of a mental map of reality is the concept of time.
e. Mental maps classify reality and assign meaning to what has been classified.
When part of an ethnic group splits off or two groups combine to form a new group that
identifies itself separately, this is known as:
a. budding.
b. ethnogenesis.
c. fissioning.
d. origination.
e. syncretism.
Calculations of DNA mutation rates indicate that Native Americans were derived from
northeast Asians who migrated to the Americas about:
a. 15,000 years ago.
b. 30,000 years ago.
c. 100,000 years ago.
d. 150,000 years ago.
e. 200,000 years ago.
Which of the following terms best describes the study of how gestures, postures, and
facial expressions convey messages without words?
a. discourse analysis
b. morphology
c. kinesics
d. prestige language
e. historical linguistics
Anthropologists seek to counter ethnocentrism by:
a. objectively, accurately, and sensitively representing the diversity of human life and
culture.
b. seeking to explain cultural difference as scientifically or biologically natural.
c. advocating against globalization.
d. spreading American norms and values to the populations they study.
e. critiquing the norms and values of other cultures against the standards of their home
cultures.
The author writes that the marketing of art created by the Pintupi of Western Australia:
a. involves stressing that the art shows native ingenuity in the twenty-first century.
b. stresses the authenticity of these designs through their link to the Dreaming.
c. informs tourists that this culture will disappear if foreigners don”t purchase the art.
d. appeals to eco-friendly consumers by stressing the use of trees from sustainable
forests.
e. has created considerable differences of wealth within the Pintupi community.
What metaphor is used to describe the process of immigrant assimilation into U.S.
dominant culture?
a. nationalism
b. tossed salad
c. melting pot
d. nationhood
e. whitening
Which of the following individuals is among four key theorists of class and inequality
who wrote in the nineteenth century and is likely the most widely read theorist of class?
a. Margaret Mead
b. Clifford Geertz
c. Franz Boas
d. Karl Marx
e. Ruth Benedict
In South Africa, the Bafokeng were able to eventually get much of their land back from
the white settlers who had taken it through what means?
a. Bafokeng independence
b. guerrilla warfare
c. Bafokeng free state
d. ethnic cleansing
e. Royal Bafokeng Nation, Inc.
As part of a territorial conflict in Bosnia, ethnic Croats expelled, imprisoned, or killed
the Muslim people who they had lived peacefully next door to for more than five
hundred years. This illustrates the concept of:
a. removal.
b. genocide.
c. fascism.
d. expulsion.
e. ethnic cleansing.
Cooking and building, fashion and oratory, decorating and dressing, and sewing and
play all represent ________ through which artists and audience communicate.
a. sculpture
b. media
c. songs
d. games
e. programs
Nation-states draw heavily on ideas of which of the following in order to create a sense
of connection among very different people found within their national borders?
a. nationalism and kinship
b. kinship and family
c. hegemony and kinship
d. nationalism and hegemony
e. family and hegemony
________ are virtual characters created to inhabit alternate worlds.
a. Mediascapes
b. Avatars
c. Oralities
d. Surrogates
e. Socialites
Geneticists have been able to successfully identify:
a. a “gay” and a “straight” gene.
b. clusters of “gay” and “straight genes,” but not the interactions of those genes.
c. the “gay” gene but not the “straight” gene.
d. The “straight” gene but not the “gay gene.”
e. no gene or cluster of genes that determines sexuality.
All of the following are examples of sexuality in contemporary media and politics,
EXCEPT:
a. international campaigns for gay and lesbian rights.
b. the ongoing conversation about sexual violence on college campuses.
c. the U.S. public policy debate over the criminalization of sex work.
d. the debate over U.S. intervention in Syria.
e. the overturning of DOMA.
Which of the following is considered a type of magic that involves performances that
imitate the desired result, such as manipulating a doll?
a. liminal magic
b. ritual magic
c. continuous magic
d. imitative magic
e. contagious magic
Adolf Hitler was able to create a powerful unified state in Germany by blaming
minorities such as Jews and Gypsies for the countries problems and promoting the idea
of German people as “bermench” or superior people, who were better than others. This
made the idea of persecuting minorities seem natural and expanding German
dominance over Europe like a reasonable course of action. This feeling of belonging
and superiority is known as:
a. social cohesion.
b. patriotism.
c. nationalism.
d. fervor.
e. angst.
Cultural anthropologists analyze and compare data on different cultures using the
method known as:
a. ethnocentrism.
b. ethnographic analogy.
c. cultural relativism.
d. sociolinguistics.
e. ethnology.
Proponents of poverty as a structural problem trace its roots to dysfunctional aspects of
the:
a. family system.
b. financial system.
c. educational system.
d. political system.
e. economic system.
In a brief essay, identify three ways that various immigrants from India have created a
new and unique Indian American identity in the United States. Is this assimilation or
multiculturalism, and why?
Define zeros and explain their significance for ethnographers.
Summarize how the dramatic increase in intelligence and use of material culture in
Homo accelerated with the appearance of Homo sapiens about 350,000 yBP.
Discuss how migration is not often an individual choice, but one that occurs at the
household level. How and why do households and families contribute to individual
migrations? How do economic processes surrounding remittances influence the
migration patterns and possibilities for migrant families?
Explain how and why the “one drop rule” was traditionally used to determine race in
American culture.
Analyze how idealized gender roles and attributes of both sexes are reflected in the
sexual division of labor and jobs that adult men and women tend to pursue in the United
States, and how this is tied to constructions of masculine and feminine gender norms
and performance. Provide two examples for each gender.
Compare and contrast how historic and prehistoric archaeologists investigate past
human life and explain what insights can be gained.
Comparing and contrasting marriage rates of the past with those of the present,
anthropologists found that earlier marriages did not last any longer than marriages
today. What are some of the reasons for this? If past and present marriage rates do not
differ significantly, do the proportion of children raised in single-parent households
differ between past and present? Why or why not? How might shorter marriages and
single-parent households affect kinship within a society? What other elements may
contribute to shorter marriages and single-parent households today, and how do they
differ from elements that likely contributed to shorter marriages and single-parent
households in the past? Why would anthropologists be interested in researching topics
such as shorter marriages and single-parent households?
All colleges now have sexual-offense policies that describe their expectations for how
men and women are expected to act toward each other. Describe how Antioch College’s
particular policy differed from the prevailing view of the time and its results.
In the opening discussion of the chapter, the author discusses how Jerome and
Kevin-Prince Boateng have become soccer stars. Their father was Ghanian and their
mothers were German; one played soccer for the German national team and the other
played for the Ghanian national team. In a brief essay, explain how they can have
different nationalities that allow them to play on different national teams, but do they
have different ethnicities as well? Why?
In a brief essay, describe three elements of a social movement. Provide examples to
illustrate your description.
Discuss how “traditional” Chinese medicine (TCM) has “gone global.” What are two
underlying beliefs that shape this approach to health care despite the range of areas
where TCM is practiced? What is qi and what does this type of treatment attempt to
achieve? Distinguish between three different forms of treatment within TCM. How and
when did Chinese medical practices become more widespread in North America and
Europe, and which are most common in California?
Describe how changes in transportation technology in the nineteenth century led to the
development of anthropology.
According to your textbook, a particular language variation is associated with wealth,
success, education, and power. These language variations with elevated status are
known as prestige languages. Using the concepts of cultural capital and prestige
language, discuss two examples of how nonstandard variations of languages can be
linked to particular positions with a culture. How are linguistic standards established or
reinforced? Explain why it has been said that a dialect is a language without a navy or
an army.
Define ethnic cleansing and genocide and give an example of each to illustrate your
answer.
The author of your textbook describes a situation in a Chinese village in which family
and ancestral records had been destroyed as part of the national Cultural Revolution in
the 1960s. The author uses this case to underscore the fact that political factors can
shape efforts to construct and maintain kinship. What are two examples of ways in
which political factors may have shaped kinship in the United States? Do you think that
political factors continue to influence kinship in any way today? Why or why not? What
future implications may current political factors have on future forms of kinship?
French ethnographer and folklorist Arnold van Gennep (1873″1957) was the first to
theorize a category of ritual called “rites of passage.” What are rites of passage, and
what is an example of a rite of passage in your own cultural experience? How are rites
of passage related to rituals and religion? Are there rites of passage in cultural groups
that are not tied to religion? Provide an example. How do rites of passage affect the
individual and how do they affect the cultural group as a whole?
What types of evidence have anthropologists drawn on to approximate when humans
first began to use language? Using examples, analyze how genetic and archaeological
information have been used to determine when the human capacity for speech evolved.
How did language enhance the ability of humans to survive and adapt to inhospitable
environments?
Compare and contrast the concepts of the band, the tribe, and the chiefdom. What are
the advantages of each?