New evidence from Zhoukoudian cave has substantiated the long held notion that
Homo erectus used controlled fire.
The development of the first civilizations in South America was based primarily on
maritime resources.
Bonobo communities, like those of chimpanzees, are centered around male-male bonds.
The majority of modern anthropologists regard biological determinism as a valid mode
of explaining human racial differences.
Large primate groups are advantageous because they increase the likelihood of early
predator detection.
The Cenozoic era is considered the age of mammals due to the vast diversification that
took place.
Physical anthropologists are interested only in the study of biological systems.
Evidence from the Upper Paleolithic in Asia shows that there is no evidence for
occupation prior to the initial occupation of the New World.
The anthropological perspective proposes to broaden our viewpoint though time and
space.
In many parts of North America, hunter-gatherer lifeways were less the collector than
the forager type common among their Paleo-Indian ancestors.
When African migrants came into contact with premodern humans living in Eurasia,
some interbreeding occurred.
Seriation dates objects using the principle of superposition.
It now appears likely that cultural traditions relating to stone tool technology were
largely equivalent over the full geographical range of H. erectus and its contemporaries.
The evolutionary roots of Neandertals are shrouded in mystery because there are no
fossils from western Europe.
The 3.7 million year old footprints of two hominids were discovered in a riverbed in
Texas.
Miss Waldron’s red colobus has officially been declared extinct.
The end of Teotihuacn is associated with the destruction of religious temples.
All archaeologists agree that Homo erectus appears to have been an efficient big game
hunter who rarely gathered wild plant foods.
Premodern Homo sapiens continued to live in caves and open-air sites, but may also
have increased their use of caves.
Orangutan adults have a very active locomotion pattern, and they frequently brachiate.
Recent analyses have shown that the mtDNA from fossil modern human skeletons is
somewhat limited because mtDNA is a fairly small segment of DAN, and is transmitted
between generations as a single unit.
Recent genetic evidence confirms that some interbreeding took place between
Neandertals and H. sapiens sometime between 80,000 and 50,000.
Charles Darwin acknowledged the importance of sexual reproduction when formulating
his theory of natural selection.
Charles Lyell, author of Principles of Geology, is considered the founder of modern
geology.
The “dental comb” is a specialization found in most of the anthropoid species.
The most interesting fact about human skin color is that there appears to be no adaptive
significance whatsoever to population-level variations in skin color.
The term ethnicity was originally proposed in order to avoid the emotional baggage
associated with the term race.
The concept of evolution is unique to Western science.
As was true with several early civilizations, the Indus civilization’s major sites declined,
hundreds of smaller towns and villages outlasted them.
Hominin occupations at Olduvai Gorge, without doubt, represent a home-base foraging
pattern.
Charles Darwin refrained from immediately publishing his theory of natural selection
because he was aware of its controversial nature.
Forensic anthropologists must deal with the race concept because they are asked by law
enforcement agencies to identify an individual’s race from skeletal remains.
Potassium argon dating is typically used on hominin sites.
Experimental archaeology involves replicating past technology as a means of producing
testable inferences about the past.
The theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics has recently displaced natural
selection as mainstream science’s most accepted theory of evolutionary change.
It has been proposed that male Hanuman langurs that commit infanticide are actually
reducing their own reproductive success.
Domestication in eastern North America and the Mississippian Complex is the result of
diffusion from Mexico.
Many unmodified rocks of types that are not present in the geology of the immediate
vicinity are just rocks and have nothing to do with behavior of early hominins.
Vertebrate fossils are found as far back as the Paleozoic.
Although there are important behavioral features of humans the most distinctive is not
our extraordinary elaboration of and dependence on culture.
As agricultural techniques and resulting harvests improved,
a. surplus production was still difficult to achieve.
b. surplus production was at the discretion of the individual farmer.
c. surplus production served as a kind of capital, or wealth that stimulated new kinds of
socioeconomic interactions.
d. farmers could stop producing full time and become religious leaders.
e. a social and economic hierarchy emerged in all Neolithic societies.
Because of their relative genetic similarity,
a. domesticated species of grasses are susceptible to disease, drought, and pests.
b. several roots crops are no longer able to sustain populations.
c. scientists are trying to prevent reestablishing genetic diversity in grasses and several
root crops through limiting introduction of heterogeneous strains.
d. domesticated species of grasses are better than domesticated species of fowl and
animals.
e. domesticated species of plants are never interspersed with different species of plants.
The diversification of the mammals occurred mostly during the
a. Pleistocene
b. Mesozoic
c. Quaternary
d. Cenozoic
e. Paleozoic
Who was the first to recognize the role of the environment as a significant factor in
evolutionary change?
a. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
b. Georges Cuvier
c. Thomas Malthus
d. Charles Darwin
e. Charles Lyell
What is the term for the rapid expansion and diversification of groups of organisms into
newly available ecological niches?
a. generalization
b. homology
c. parallel evolution
d. adaptive radiation
e. specialization
Which concept, proposed by Charles Lyell, had a profound effect on 19th century
scientific thought?
a. recent origins for earth
b. the role of catastrophic events in producing geological phenomena
c. natural selection
d. the immense age of the earth
e. the inheritance of acquired characteristics
Why are stone tools important for reconstructing the human past?
a. They are the aspect of culture most often preserved.
b. They represent the most important part of culture.
c. They define the home range.
d. Tool use is a unique to hominins.
e. They are always manufactured.
Which absolute dating technique is most commonly used on archaeological sites
younger than 50,000 years?
a. radiocarbon
b. thermoluminescence
c. argon-argon
d. calendars
e. fission track
Shanidar cave is extraordinary in that an individual in the burial
a. is the only Neandertal remains found Israel.
b. evidences a skull having received a crushing blow, probably causing blindness, and a
blow to the right side rendering the right arm useless.
c. is without the right lower arm and hand, demonstrating the results of poor
preservation.
d. is an ancient member of an extinct social group in Iraq.
e. lived to approximately 80 years of age.
According to the principle of independent assortment there is a __________chance that
any tall pea plant will produce either yellow or green peas.
a. 0 percent
b. 25 percent
c. 50 percent
d. 75 percent
e. 100 percent
Which of the following dating techniques relies on the regular growth of tree rings?
a. Radiocarbon
b. K-Ar
c. Dendrochronology
d. Paleomagnetism
e. Seriation
What do the language experiments with chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas indicate?
a. They lack the ability to communicate symbolically.
b. They can learn to use up to 100 spoken words.
c. They have some ability to use signs to communicate.
d. They have human-like vocal tract anatomies.
e. They think symbolically in the same way humans do.
___________________wrote the highly praised Principles of Geology in which was
emphasized the principle of uniformitarianism.
a. Charles Darwin
b. Charles Lyell
c. Alfred Russel Wallace
d. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
e. Thomas Malthus
Thermoluminescence can be used on which of the following?
a. Heated materials such as burned flint
b. fossilized plants
c. bone
d. sedimentary layers of dirt
e. petrified wood
Regarding aspects of primate maturation, learning, and behavior, primates have all
except
a. a more efficient means of fetal nourishment
b. longer periods of gestation
c. reduced numbers of offspring
d. delayed maturation
e. decreased life span
Which of the following does NOT represent a biochemical signature of diet?
a. the ratio of nitrogen isotopes varying with the overall importance of seafood
b. different photosynthetic processes resulting in varying ratios of carbon
c. strontium and calcium ratios indicating relative importance of meat and plant foods
d. different chemical compositions resulting from photosynthesis in bones of human
skeletons
e. unusually low concentrations of lead found in bones of those who drink wine that has
been stored in lead containers
During glacial periods, the climate in Africa became
a. colder
b. warmer
c. more arid
d. more humid
e. subzero
The ABO blood type system consists of ______ alleles.
a. 6
b. 4
c. 3
d. 2
e. 5
Which of the following is not one of the subfields of anthropology in the United States?
a. Cultural
b. Physical
c. Psychological
d. Archaeology
e. Linguistics
The natural population growth function exemplified in the world population since 1800
is unsustainable, whether speaking of humans or E coli bacteria.
a. True
b. False
For humans, culture integrates an entire adaptive strategy involving all of the following
except
a. cognitive components
b. political components
c. economic components
d. social components
e. biological components
In its most common biological usage, the term race
a. has precise definitions agreed upon all anthropologists
b. refers to the geographically patterned phenotypic variation within a species
c. refers only to skin color
d. refers only to IQ
e. refers to a person’s nationality
If an isotope has a half-life of 4 billion years, then in 4 billion years what will happen?
a. All of the original amount will have decayed.
b. A quarter of the original amount will still remain.
c. Half of the original amount will still be present.
d. All of the original amount will still be present.
e. The original amount will have doubled.
What is the only source of new genetic material in any population?
a. mutation
b. genetic drift
c. founder effect
d. migration
e. natural selection
The Neolithic Revolution is associated with:
a. the development of agriculture
b. the beginning of social differentiation
c. the development of state level societies
d. the transition to intensive hunting and gathering
e. the beginning of fully modern human behavior
Between 12,000 and 11,000 ya, the climate associated with the waning Pleistocene
changed, exemplified by
a. increase in temperature and decrease in precipitation.
b. decrease in temperature and decrease in precipitation.
c. increase in temperature and increase in precipitation.
d. decrease in temperature and increase in precipitation.
e. stabilization of earlier Pleistocene temperature and precipitation.
Cultural behavior
a. has never been observed in nonhuman primates
b. is learned
c. is purely genetic
d. has only been observed in chimpanzees
e. has only been observed in bonobos
If you were digging a hominin site that contains geological layers that resulted from
volcanic activity, what dating technique would you most likely use?
a. radiocarbon
b. thermoluminescence
c. potassium-argon
d. biostratigraphy
e. uranium series
Traditionally, primate characteristics have been explained as the result of adaptation to
________ environments.
a. terrestrial
b. rocky
c. arboreal
d. desert
e. ocean
The non-intrusive method of discovering archaeological sites is known as:
a. excavation
b. reclamation
c. site survey
d. field work
e. taphonomy
What are Monotremes?
a. marsupials
b. viviparous reptiles
c. egg-laying fish
d. placental mammals
e. egg-laying mammals
Vertical clinging and leaping is a locomotor pattern frequently practiced by which of the
following?
a. apes
b. lemurs and tarsiers
c. terrestrial monkeys
d. Old World monkeys
e. gibbons
Maya hieroglyphics on stelae recorded which of the following subjects?
a. commerce
b. royal ancestry and noble deeds
c. taxation records
d. accounts of the Spanish Conquest
e. technological manuals for metallurgy
Contrast the terms city state and territorial state.
Answer:Will vary
What were some of the environmental changes occurring as a result of the end of the
Younger Dryas?
Answer:Will vary
Why is it difficult to get a clear evolutionary picture of Middle Pleistocene hominins?
Answer:Will vary
Using Star Carr or another important site as an example, explain how specific
archaeological findings may be used to interpret early Holocene lifeways.
Answer:Will vary
Define the concept, Anthropocene, and what it implies
Answer:Will vary
List two pieces of genetic evidence that will help determine when fully human language
first emerged.
Answer:Will vary
Discuss the Upper Paleolithic cultural period, including innovations in technology, art
and burials.
Answer:Will vary
What was so “revolutionary” about the Neolithic? Discuss some of the fundamental
differences between Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic or Epipaleolithic) and Neolithic
lifeways.
Answer:Will vary
What is the Paleo-Indian period? When does it date, and what are the associated
cultural patterns? Illustrate your answer with examples from sites discussed in the text.
Answer:Will vary
What are the typical Mendelian phenotypic and genotypic ratios in the F2 generation for
a cross of purebred tall and short plants? Why are these ratios typical?
Answer:Will vary
Contrast obligate bipedalism with habitual bipedalism.
Answer:Will vary
Why is the settlement of the Americas a difficult issue for archaeologists to address?
What aspects of this event as well as the approaches that archaeologists use to
understand it inhibit our ability to more definitely address this issue?
Answer:Will vary
How is natural selection related to environmental factors? How can selective pressures
change? Give an example.
Answer:Will vary
What role did marine resource exploitation have in the emergence of political
complexity in South America?
Answer:Will vary
What polymorphisms exist at the DNA level?
Answer:Will vary
Does the home based foraging pattern adequately describe the Oldowan sites?
Answer:Will vary
Compare and contrast the various theories used to explain the appearance of agriculture.
What features define them as either environmental or cultural? What are the advantaged
and drawbacks of each approach?
Answer:Will vary
What is meant by the statement, “natural selection is the one factor that can cause
directional change in allele frequency relative to specific environmental factors”?
Answer:Will vary
What does it mean when one states that humans are members of the same polytypic
species?
Answer:Will vary
Define vasoconstriction and describe its role in the human physiological response to
cold.
Answer:Will vary