The world’s linguistic diversity has been cut in half, as measured by the number of
distinct languages extant, in the past 500 years, and half of the remaining languages are
predicted to disappear during this century.
In the caste system of India, failure to adhere to class endogamy rules traditionally
resulted in a ritually impure marriage.
Expressive culture refers to the components of a culture that are expressed publicly, as
opposed to the private aspects of culture that are hidden from anthropologists.
Franz Boas’s famous biological studies of European immigrants to the United States
revealed and measured phenotypical plasticity, showing that the environment and
cultural forces could change human biology.
The British notion “white man’s burden” is similar to the French concept mission
civilisatrice in that both were racist ideologies used to justify the colonial efforts of
their respective countries.
Bourdieu argues that languages with the highest symbolic capital are those that are
better systems of communication.
Since bands lack formalized law, they have no way of settling disputes.
Ethnography is increasingly multi-timed and multi-sited, the result of a shift toward a
recognition of the ongoing and inescapable flows of people, technology, images, and
information that characterizes much of the world today.
When nations become more tied to the world economy, indigenous forms of social
organization inevitably break down into nuclear family organization, impersonality, and
alienation.
Marx argued that socioeconomic stratification was based on the sharp and simple
division between the successful Protestant industrialists and the poor Catholic
peasantry.
Ethnography is one of applied anthropology’s most valuable research tools, because it
provides a firsthand account of the lives of ordinary people.
Stratum endogamy is restricted to chiefdoms, wherein chiefs occupied a formal elite
stratum in society.
A bachelor’s degree in anthropology is of little value in the corporate world.
Although agriculture is much more productive per acre than horticulture, horticulture is
more reliable and dependable in the long run.
Worldwide, concern about environmental and technological risks is more developed in
groups that are less endangered by those risks.
Practice theory recognizes that the study of anthropology takes a lot of practice before
resulting in accurate descriptions of a culture.
Industrialization increases mobility, which plays a major role in the disappearance of
extended families in the United States.
With polyandry, a woman takes more than one husband.
An achieved status is not automatic. It comes through choices, actions, efforts, talents,
or accomplishments, and is always perceived as positive by a society.
Like ethnicity and language, religion is also associated with social divisions within and
between societies and nations.
One of the challenges that environmental anthropologists face is that risk perception is
rarely related to actions that can reduce threat to the environment.
Animal call systems exhibit linguistic productivity.
Only dominant or majority groups can have prejudiced views; minority groups are not
capable of being prejudiced.
Ethnocide refers to the deliberate elimination of a cultural tradition through aggressive
policies forcing assimilation.
Members of a clan are descended from a common apical ancestor.
Diglossia refers to linguistic groups, like those in Papua New Guinea and Australia, that
distinguish between only two colors: black and white or dark and light.
There is more collective production and performance of art in non-Western societies
than in Western, industrialized states.
Cultural particularities are unique to certain cultures, while cultural generalities are
common to several (but not all) cultures.
Because appreciation of the arts is acquired through enculturation, what one finds
aesthetically pleasing depends in part on one’s cultural background.
Humanity (Homo sapiens) lacks distinct races, because human populations have not
been isolated enough from one another to develop into discrete groups.
The specific roles assigned to each gender vary from culture to culture.
Which of the following illustrates some of the dangers of the old applied anthropology?
A. anthropologists promoting the study of their field among university undergraduates
B. anthropologists practicing participant observation and taking photographs of
ritualistic behavior
C. Robert Redfield’s work on the contrasts between urban and rural communities
D. anthropologists collaborating with nongovernmental organizations in the 1980s
E. anthropologists aiding colonial expansion by providing ethnographic information to
colonists
To understand royal endogamy, it is useful to distinguish between the manifest and
latent functions of customs and behavior. The manifest function of a custom refers to
the reasons people in a society give it. Its latent function is
A. the genetically motivated reason for the custom.
B. a subconscious effect that the custom has on society members’ identification with
that belief.
C. the socially constructed perspective of why the custom exists.
D. an effect the custom has on the society that its members don”t mention or recognize.
E. the emic effect the custom has on the society, recognized only by anthropologists.
Kinship terminology is a classification system, a taxonomy or typology. More generally,
a taxonomic system
A. is based on how people perceive similarities and differences in the things being
classified.
B. is accurate only when based on Western science.
C. is based on categories given by nature.
D. usually changes with every generation.
E. applies best to nonliving things.
What postmarital residence rule is most often found in societies with lineal kinship
terminologies?
A. ambilocal
B. neolocal
C. patrilocal
D. matrilocal
E. bilocal
Which of the following is an example of independent invention, the process by which
people in different societies have innovated and changed in similar but independent
ways?
A. acculturation
B. culture
C. globalization
D. agriculture
E. language
What makes up ego’s nuclear family of orientation?
A. parents and siblings
B. spouse and offspring
C. extended family
D. lineal kin
E. collateral kin
The tasks and activities that a culture assigns to each sex are known as
A. gender stereotypes.
B. the prestige coefficient.
C. sexual ascribed status.
D. gender roles.
E. sex roles.
Despite the variety of research techniques that the ethnographer may utilize in the field,
in the best studies the hallmark of ethnography remains
A. collaborating with the community to construct a cohesive image of local culture.
B. entering the community and getting to know its people.
C. gathering large quantities of data on a limited budget.
D. defining the local culture in such a way as to highlight what makes the particular
culture so unlike any other.
E. providing detailed descriptions of “the imponderabilia of native life and of typical
behavior.”
If a patriarchy is a political system ruled by men, what would a matriarchy bea political
system ruled by women? Anthropologist Peggy Sanday, who investigated these
questions among the Minangkabau of West Sumatra, found that
A. true matriarchies do not exist.
B. women in matriarchies see their male counterparts as being inferior.
C. women of newer generations are experimenting with new ideas of gender roles.
D. although matriarchies do exist, they are not mirror images of patriarchies because, at
least for the Minangkabau, both men and women are seen as cooperative partners for
the common good.
E. although Minangkabau women play a central role in their culture’s social, economic,
and ceremonial life, they are still regarded as having lower status than men.
An ethnographic study of the workplace
A. provides evidence that economic factors are fundamental to understanding
differential productivity.
B. is routinely performed by employees of the U.S. federal government.
C. is not very useful, because all workplaces are becoming increasingly homogeneous,
compared to 20 years ago.
D. provides a close observation of workers and managers in their natural setting.
E. is required of all organizations that want to become not-for-profit, according to the
American Anthropological Association.
Transvestism, when members of one gender (usually males) dress as another (female),
is
A. very common in Brazil, given this 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.
In the context of tribal societies, what is a “big man”?
A. someone who holds a permanent political office
B. a hereditary ruler
C. a person who creates his reputation through entrepreneurship and generosity to
others
D. a leader who avoids excessive displays of generosity
E. a leader who has tremendous power because he is regarded as divine
mile Durkheim’s focus on social facts illustrates what assumption shared by many
anthropologists?
A. Social fact, just like any other fact, can be studied objectively.
B. Culture is more of an idea in people’s heads than a social reality.
C. Culture is primarily a psychological and individual phenomenon.
D. Social phenomena studied by anthropologists require study methods that are
different from those used by other social scientists.
E. Psychologists study individuals, but anthropologists study individuals as
representative of something more: a collective phenomenon that is more than the sum
of its parts.
What is an example of what Bourdieu calls symbolic domination in the context of
language use?
A. in an egalitarian society, the promotion of linguistic diversity
B. pride in one’s linguistic heritage, regardless of what the majority thinks
C. the fact that in a stratified society, even people who do not speak the prestige dialect
tend to accept it as standard or superior
D. focal vocabulary contrasts among groups
E. Chomsky’s insistence that the universal grammar defines all culture
A lobola, a substantial marital gift from the husband and his kin to the wife and her kin
among the BaThonga of Mozambique, is
A. a form of bride theft.
B. only given for elopements.
C. the same as a dowry.
D. widespread in patrilineal societies.
E. widespread in matrilineal societies.
________ refers to the changes that result when groups come into continuous firsthand
contact.
A. Acculturation
B. Hegemony
C. Enculturation
D. Diffusion
E. Colonialism
The influential sociologist Max Weber defined which three related dimensions of social
stratification?
A. wealth, power, and prestige
B. cultural capital, power, and population control
C. superordinate, ordinate, and subordinate
D. judiciary, enforcement, and fiscal
E. selfishness, greed, and ignorance
The Occupy movement, which began on Wall Street and spread to other U.S. and
Canadian cities, recognizes the disparity between the rich and the poor. Which of the
following statements about U.S. wealth as of the year 2009 is NOT correct?
A. The top 1% of American households hold over one-third the nation’s wealth.
B. The net worth of the top 1% is 225 times greater than the typical household’s net
worth.
C. The net worth of the top 1% compared to the typical household is the highest ratio on
record.
D. The bottom 90% of income-earning households control half of all net worth.
E. The top 1% owns more than the bottom 90% combined.
Radcliffe-Brown advocated that social anthropology be a synchronic rather than a
diachronic science; that is, a study
A. of culture in motion (synchronic) rather than as a static entity (diachronic).
B. that compares cultural traits within the same society and not across societies.
C. of societies across time (synchronic) rather than across space (diachronic).
D. of societies as they exist today (synchronic, one at a time) rather than across time
(diachronic).
E. of societies as made up of individuals, not as a sum greater than its parts.
In this chapter we learned that we should not view contemporary foragers as isolated or
pristine survivors of the Stone Age. In fact, all societies, no matter how small or
seemingly remote, are influenced by regional and even global forces. For example, the
Kamayur Indians, who live in the middle of Xingu National Park in Brazil, have had to
deal with which of the following threats to their livelihood?
A. the encroachment of guerrilla fighters and miners seeking tourmalines, a precious
stone currently in high demand
B. drier weather from deforestation and climate change, and the negative impact that
this has on their subsistence crops and the availability of food that they relied on
through fishing and hunting
C. the encroachment of urban development of coastal Brazilians in search of a life
closer to nature
D. pressure from missionaries attempting to transform them into a cash-crop society
E. unpredictable weather patterns that have increased precipitation in the region and
turned jungle into swamp
This chapter’s “Focus on Globalization” section discusses the strides different countries
have made to close the gender gap. Which region has done the least to correct
gender-based inequality?
A. North America
B. Africa
C. Latin America
D. Middle East/North Africa
E. Nordic countries
Because our planet’s climate is always changing, the key question becomes, how much
of global warming is caused by human activities versus natural climate variability? On
this issue, most scientists agree that the causes are mainly
A. evolutionary.
B. ecological.
C. anthropogenic.
D. moral.
E. indigenized.
________ refers to the specialized set of terms and distinctions that are particularly
important to certain groups.
A. Syntactical vocabulary
B. Spatial vocabulary
C. Focal vocabulary
D. Vernacular vocabulary
E. Temporal vocabulary
Which of the following is a distinguishing characteristic of the work that applied
anthropologists do?
A. They enter the affected communities and talk with people.
B. They gather government statistics.
C. They consult project managers.
D. They consult government officials and other experts.
E. They promote development.
What did Handsome Lake lead in about 1800 among the Iroquois?
A. a shamanistic cult
B. a revitalization movement
C. an animistic-residualist front
D. a structuralist movement
E. a cargo cult
According to Wallerstein (1982, 2004), what are the three structural positions of the
modern world system?
A. core, periphery, and semiperiphery
B. metropole, satellite, and semisatellite
C. state, nation-state, and nation
D. wealth, power, and prestige
E. preliterate, nonliterate, and literate
What is the term that anthropologists use to identify ego’s socially recognized father?
A. pater
B. genitor
C. creator
D. father
E. mater
Like ethnicity and language, religion also is
A. a social fiction.
B. a topic of research that distinguishes anthropology from other disciplines.
C. a phenomenon that illustrates the power of biology over culture.
D. a cultural generality.
E. associated with social divisions within and between societies and nations.
What are phonemes?
A. the rules by which deep structure is translated into surface structure
B. regional differences in dialect
C. syntactical structures that distinguish passive constructions from active ones
D. the minimal sound contrasts that distinguish meaning in a language
E. electromagnetic signals that carry messages between speakers in a telephone
conversation
In many non-Western societies, how are traditional manifestations of expressive culture
transmitted?
A. through formal state-run schools for the arts
B. by chance
C. in families
D. through the nonproductive members of society
E. only by fully initiated adults
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.