________ is the cornerstone of the research conducted by contemporary cultural
anthropologists.
a. Participant observation
b. Archival research
c. Statistical analysis
d. Synchronic study
e. Unilineal evolution
The author attributes the increased popularity of Tibetan medicine in recent decades to:
a. international migration.
b. the end of colonization there.
c. a rejection of ethnomedicine.
d. a desire for pain-free epidural injections.
e. Tibetan medicine is not gaining popularity.
Medical migration as discussed in the text does not include:
a. the movement of diseases across national borders.
b. a global trade and movement in body parts.
c. a reduction in the number of poor patients seeking treatment abroad.
d. an increase in medical tourists purchasing lower-priced medicines abroad.
e. fewer images used to market youth and beauty, as these vary culturally.
In many countries, members of the dominant ethnic or racial group tend to favor other
members of their own group, give them the benefit of any doubt, and take what other
members say more seriously. Minorities are often discounted as less important or even
hostile for insisting on being treated fairly. In the United States, this is called:
a. white privilege.
b. nepotism.
c. insiders.
d. cronyism.
e. patronage.
According to the text, which of the following has seen an increase in attention to
policies addressing sexual violence?
a. college campuses
b. synagogues
c. malls
d. nursing homes
e. prisons
In Egypt, people view the decisions of the official Egyptian Personal Status courts with
great suspicion, and they often turn to the traditional Al Azhar Fatwa Council for
guidance on important matters of daily life, even though their decisions are not legally
binding. The Fatwa Council is an example of a(n):
a. religious institution.
b. independent court.
c. customary law structure.
d. common law organization.
e. alternative legal structure.
Which of the following statements is false?
a. Culture is changed, contested, and negotiated.
b. Culture commonly emerges out of the blue and remains fixed over time.
c. Consumer culture was created as part of twentieth-century global capitalism.
d. There are deep interconnections between culture and power.
e. Culture is both learned and taught.
Digital activism is:
a. the gap between those fully able to participate in the digital age and those without
access to electricity, the Internet, and mobile phones.
b. social struggles for worker rights and democracy that are aided by social media,
mobile phones, and electronic communication.
c. those born after the 1980s; this generation has spent their lives using devices like
smartphones and laptops.
d. the era defined by the proliferation of high-speed communication technologies, social
networking, and personal computing.
e. the generation that uses technology, but in a process more akin to learning a new
culture or language.
What term was used in the past to describe a group of people but now refers to a
country?
a. community
b. nation
c. nationality
d. nation-state
e. state
Hunger reflects growing global inequality and is a result of:
a. the uneven distribution of food despite the sufficient amount of food available to feed
the world’s poor.
b. the insufficient amount of food available to feed the world’s population.
c. farmers abandoning their fields for high-paying factory jobs.
d. massive hunger strikes to protest the uneven distribution of resources.
e. the collapse of agribusiness following the global recession.
We refer to changes in the way we think about how long something should take or how
far away people are as:
a. flexible time scales.
b. uneven development.
c. key dynamics.
d. time-space compression.
e. technological innovation.
The author notes that the image of the state as fixed, cohesive, and coherent is an
illusion, and in fact, states are constantly being:
a. constructed.
b. destroyed.
c. maligned.
d. reimagined.
e. separated.
The economically efficient strategy of cooperative gathering, coordinated hunting, and
reciprocal sharing of resources while resisting hierarchy and domination sustained
human beings through most of our existence and is referred to as:
a. consensus.
b. communalism.
c. diversity.
d. egalitarianism.
e. impartiality.
In the nineteenth century, European nations met at the Berlin Conference to decide how
to divide up the lands, resources, and populations of:
a. North and South America.
b. the Caribbean.
c. China and Japan.
d. the Middle East.
e. the continent of Africa.
An individual’s height is influenced by all the following EXCEPT:
a. prenatal stresses on the womb.
b. nutritional consumption during growth.
c. exposure to ultraviolet light.
d. immunization of childhood diseases.
e. genes.
The process that preserves an organism through a chemical process that turns it partially
or wholly into rock is called:
a. sedimentation.
b. fossilization.
c. decomposition.
d. stratigraphy.
e. carbonization.
Early anthropologists identified how many primary systems used to classify relatives in
the parental generation, including the bifurcate merging system?
a. two
b. seven
c. nine
d. four
e. five
Social capital is:
a. immigrants who continue to travel back and forth between destination and origin
countries.
b. the process by which immigrants decide to leave the country they migrated to and
relocate “home.”
c. assets and skills such as language, education, or social networks that complement
financial resources.
d. the maintenance of active participation in political, religious, social, and economic
spheres across national borders.
e. migration that takes place within borders.
Through the Zar Cult of Sudan, women:
a. joined forces to protest violence against women and children.
b. claimed that spirits moved them when working in factories.
c. resisted subordination by speaking out while in a trance state.
d. gained political power by pursuing higher education and literacy.
e. took up arms to fight alongside men during a bloody civil war.
In the early twentieth century, hundreds of thousands of ________ migrated to Brazil,
Peru, and Argentina to seek new economic opportunities.
a. Indonesians
b. Tongans
c. Chinese
d. Koreans
e. Japanese
Similar to membership in a family, citizenship in a nation-state derives mostly from:
a. birth and biology.
b. adoption and fostering.
c. cohabitating and co-feeding.
d. personal choice.
e. economic exchanges similar to bridewealth and dowry.
Whereas many animals, such as dolphins and great apes, communicate with each other
through gestures and sounds, only human language utilizes complex systems of:
a. dance.
b. symbols.
c. warnings and alerts.
d. chemical information.
e. sign language.
Clans that do not permit marriages within the group are considered:
a. endogamous.
b. monogamous.
c. polygamous.
d. polydromous.
e. exogamous.
The author points out that people do not come prepackaged to fight, kill, and die. They
must be enculturated to fear, hate, and kill in a process that defines particular people as
the enemy and a dangerous mortal threat. He refers to this as:
a. construction of soldiers.
b. fomenting warfare.
c. inclination to danger.
d. life of dangerous things.
e. militarization of life.
Humans form kinship groups via affinal relationships, which are most commonly
achieved through:
a. unionization.
b. insemination.
c. globalization.
d. divorce.
e. marriage.
As discussed in the text, one of the frictions resulting from the interconnectedness of
the global economy is deforestation of the rainforest in:
a. Chiapas, Mexico.
b. Kalimantan, Borneo.
c. Osaka, Japan.
d. Sao Paolo, Brazil.
e. Yunnan, China.
Studies on women’s participation in the industrialized labor force indicate that:
a. social inequality decreased once women gained economic power.
b. women were unable to resist male dominance once engaged in the global economy.
c. household labor became more equitable once women began earning a salary.
d. exploitation of women decreased as women became the majority of managers.
e. patriarchal relations in the home were repeated in the workplace.
People who participate in programs that offer a temporary right to work but limited
long-term rights and privileges are called:
a. guest workers.
b. human traffickers.
c. pro bono workers.
d. labor union workers.
e. indentured servants.
Residents of rural Haiti experienced extremely high rates of:
a. cervical cancer.
b. tuberculosis.
c. obesity.
d. hypertension.
e. measles.
Any dating technique that gives a specific date for a fossil is called:
a. absolute.
b. stratigraphic.
c. relative.
d. radiometric.
e. ecometric.
One consequence of increased migration is that anthropologists conduct ________
ethnography, collecting data in two or more locations.
a. reflexive
b. extensive
c. public
d. multi-sited
e. narrative
Evaluate this statement: “As people become frustrated with the lack of intimacy
provided by electronic technologies, this form of communication will become less
important in coming decades.” Is it true or false? Use examples from the text to support
your conclusion.
Anthropologist Clifford Geertz examines the role of symbols in religion. He argues that
each symbol has deep meaning and evokes powerful emotions and motivations in the
religion’s followers. What are two different examples of religious symbols used in the
world today? What meaning do the symbols have for the religious followers? What
emotions and motivations do the symbols evoke in followers, and why? How do these
symbols help followers make sense of their worlds? What purpose do these symbols
likely serve regarding community life? Do you think symbols are imperative to
religious beliefs and practices? Why or why not?
The author discusses that in addition to its aesthetic content, people also use artistic
expression to express a wide range of emotions and sentiments, including frustration
with the status quo. Define the term popular art,and explain why the rara festivals in
Haiti are an example of this form of expression. Describe who participates in a rara
performance and provide two specific examples of how these performances allow the
participants to express their religious beliefs and frustration with social and political
inequality in Haiti.
Explain why anthropologists study nonhuman primates like apes and monkeys.
In your own words, define the term ethnocentrism and provide a concrete example that
illustrates the concept. Then discuss how ethnocentrism is related to cultural relativism
and why anthropologists must concern themselves with ethnocentrism when conducting
cross-cultural research. Conclude by offering some suggestions for concrete ways in
which anthropologists can counter ethnocentrism in mainstream society today.
What is kuru, and why was it important that anthropologists understand how it was
transmitted? Which anthropologists investigated this condition in New Guinea, and how
did their specific findings about the connection between kinship and funerary customs
underscore the idea that illness is a facet of culture that must be understood holistically?
Make sure to state what the conditions are that cause kuru, and discuss why the disease
is not as much of a threat today.
What are the differences between absolute dating techniques and relative dating
techniques?
Modern states play a central role in shaping what happens in every part of the world
today. Discuss the aspects of the state that make it the dominant form of political
organization in the world today.
Describe how local communities react to global forces influencing and mingling with
local cultures. Support your description with an example from the class.
Pierre Bourdieu argued that in addition to a family’s economic circumstances, two
additional key factors affect an individual’s social mobility within society. What are
these two additional key factors and how do they differ from each other? What are some
examples that best illustrate these two key factors? How can these two factors limit
one’s social mobility? How can these two factors improve one’s social mobility? How
do you think these two factors affect your own social mobility in society? Are there
individuals in societies who are not affected in any way by either of these factors?
Please provide at least one example to support your argument.
Families in the United States are supplementing biological connections and affinal
marriage connections with alternative family forms based on friendship, respect, and
mutual support. One alternative family form is that of chosen families. What are chosen
families, and what are some of the reasons that they exist and are becoming more
common? Give three examples of chosen families in the United States. Do you think
that chosen families existed in the distant past? Why or why not? What do you think
will happen to the prevalence of chosen families in the future and why?
Discuss the framing process and how it works. Provide an example to support your
explanation.
Explain why ethnography is considered both a science and an art.
In which ways does scientist and author Jared Diamond suggest that human sexuality is
distinct from other mammals? Identify three ways in which humans differ from most
other mammals, and discuss the possible implications of these distinctions as they
intersect with other areas of interest for cultural anthropologists (e.g., kinship, gender,
class, and religion).
Identify three factors that determine race in the Dominican Republic.
What was the focus of Khiara Bridges’ research in the New York City women’s health
clinic? How did the composition of the patient population compare to that of the
medical staff? What noticeable differences did she observe, if any, in the treatment that
patients received? What, if anything, did she attribute any disparities to? Specifically,
how did members of the medical staff view their patients, and how did she interpret
these differences as creating disparities across race lines?