As the example of the Toraja of Indonesia demonstrates, in many indigenous cultures,
art has now become:
a. A luxury.
b. A leveler of class differences.
c. A commodity.
d. Separated from cultural identity.
e. Widespread among the people within the society.
The function of an Institutional Review Board (IRB) is to:
a. Certify and approve departments of anthropology.
b. Suggest disciplinary actions against researchers who violate ethical standards.
c. Approve, monitor, and review all university research involving human subjects.
d. Review articles submitted to academic journals prior to publication.
e. Fund anthropological research.
Why was the Ghost Dance prophesy particularly appealing to the Sioux?
a. The prophet was a Sioux.
b. It promised them great rewards but did not require them to do very much.
c. It clearly promised them equality with whites.
d. It combined elements of both traditional and modern religion.
e. Conditions on the Sioux reservation were particularly bad.
Which of the following best describes ethnic conflicts?
a. They are based on age-old hatreds and grievances.
b. They almost always come down to personality clashes between individuals.
c. They are shaped by politics, economics, and history.
d. Because of their nature, they can rarely be successfully mediated.
e. They are almost always based on shared misunderstanding.
Among the Lacandon Maya, an extensive cultivating society:
a. Individuals have the right to buy and sell any land use.
b. Individuals retain right to land they have cleared even if they leave it fallow.
c. Individuals and families must petition the chief yearly for an allotment of land.
d. Individuals may not buy and sell land but heads of families may do so.
e. Individuals may only gain access to land through inheritance.
In linguistic studies, phonemes are:
a. Used to call other linguists.
b. The set of all possible sounds that humans can make.
c. The set of sounds used in any particular language.
d. Never used to make words.
e. The same in every language.
In the era 1880-1920, many immigrants came to the United States. It was also in this
era that:
a. Racial prejudice almost disappeared from the United States.
b. Immigrants came to be defined in racial terms.
c. Economic opportunities were available to immigrants regardless of race.
d. All peoples of European origin began to be lumped together as white people.
e. Racial prejudice grew to levels never before seen in the U.S.
Which of the following do anthropologists argue as an explanation for warfare in tribal
societies?
a. It is totally irrational and maladaptive.
b. It is less frequent than in band societies.
c. It may regulate the balance between population and resources.
d. It is always associated with female infanticide.
e. It stems from an aggressive human instinct.
Which of the following best describes capitalism?
a. An economic system that has become predominant in the last 300 years.
b. A system designed to provide equal life-chances for all.
c. A system designed to minimize differences in wealth among people.
d. A critical means governments use to control the economy.
e. An idea present in all societies.
A Tuareg man wears his veil at different positions on his face in different social
situations. This is an example of:
a. Universal grammar.
b. Nonverbal communication.
c. The universal relationship between language and action.
d. The genetic patterning of behavior.
e. Bad manners.
Which of the following was a critical change in rural America related to the increase in
beef consumption in the late 20th century?
a. Increasing wealth of farmers (along with the increasing tendency of their children to
leave the farm).
b. Increasing presence of Wal-mart and other superstores and decline of family-owned
businesses.
c. Increasing domination by large corporate farming operations and decline of family
farm.
d. Increasing opportunities in rural America leading populations to return from cities to
rural areas.
e. Increasing importance of education in rural school districts.
The two-spirit are best described as:
a. Women who have become men through a surgical procedure.
b. Women and men who live with same-sex partners in a homosexual lifestyle.
c. Transsexuals who occupy both gender roles at all times.
d. Individuals who have no identifiable gender and work in society as partners to either
gender.
e. Men who take on women’s work and clothing and are considered to have supernatural
powers.
Today, most anthropologists agree that culture is:
a. A system of environmental adaptation.
b. The way that humans lend meaning to the world.
c. Largely a creation of anthropology with no real meaning in society at large.
d. A mental template for organizing and understanding the world.
e. Anthropologists do not agree on a single meaning of culture.
Contemporary anthropological approaches to gender emphasize:
a. Questions about why there are so few women in anthropology.
b. Explanations for universal male dominance.
c. The central role of gender relations as a basic building block of culture.
d. The ways in which men in many cultures feel threatened by female empowerment.
e. Ways to increase women’s power in contemporary society.
It was estimated in 2010 that approximately how many foreign-born residents were
living in countries around the world?
a. 78 million.
b. 134 million.
c. 214 million.
d. 527 million.
e. 716 million.
One aspect of Omaha kinship that might strike many Americans as unusual is:
a. Everyone is called by the same name.
b. A male can be called “mother.”
c. Brothers are not distinguished from sisters.
d. The term “myself” can mean either the person speaking, or one of his or her brothers
or sisters.
e. People in many generations may be called “mother’s brother.”
Torajan tau-tau, or wooden effigies of nobles, carved in connection with mortuary
ritual:
a. Have disappeared since contact with Western tourists.
b. Have often been stolen or bought for the Western art collector’s market.
c. Created the indigenous status of artist where it never previously existed.
d. Never been used traditionally, but are a “fake” cultural product developed for the
Western tourist market.
e. Have fallen into disuse since the conversion of the Torajan to Christianity.
You Owe Yourself a Drunk (1970) by James Spradley is an example of a(n) __________
ethnography.
a. Critical
b. Postmodernist
c. Collaborative and engaged
d. Ethnological
e. Reflectionist
Psychiatry has been a frequent subject of medical anthropology. One critical finding is:
a. The Freudian model of psychoanalysis is appropriate to all cultures universally.
b. People in all cultures experience universal psycho-sexual stages of development.
c. Schizophrenics are considered ill in Western cultures but are considered religiously
enlightened in other cultures.
d. Doctors are most frequently trained to treat mental disease as a result of either
biological dysfunction or psychosocial factors but not both.
e. Mental illness is always caused by social factors, but because of the influence of drug
companies, doctors are reluctant to believe this finding.
At current prices, what the Spanish looted of gold and silver from the Americas is
valued at:
a. 1 billion.
b. 3 billion.
c. 14 billion.
d. 40 billion.
e. 412 billion.
The economic production of Turkish women:
a. Is slight and has little impact on the overall economy.
b. Is best understood in terms of their social obligations and relations of reciprocity.
c. Is clearly demonstrated in women’s basket weaving.
d. Is best understood through the lens of market exchange.
e. Is believed to have high monetary value in Turkish society.
To the extent that religion reinforces the social order:
a. It can be a catalyst for change.
b. It provides solace to the poor.
c. It is irrelevant in society.
d. It usually serves the interests of the wealthy and powerful.
e. The majority of people are unlikely to believe in it.
Anthropological interview techniques:
a. Are always the same from field project to field project.
b. Always involve the same processes and same steps of procedure.
c. Are no longer used in contemporary fieldwork.
d. Have been adapted from philosophy.
e. Are highly varied and are situation-specific.
Which of the following is an example of a rite of intensification?
a. Going to a college football game.
b. Getting a driving license.
c. Getting married.
d. Taking a mid-term exam.
e. Going to see a professor during office hours.
The power of the hijras in Indian culture comes through their:
a. Practice of prostitution.
b. High entertainment standards of dancing and singing.
c. Attempts to completely identify with the goddess Bahuchara Mata.
d. Ownership of land and property.
e. Patronage by the British during colonial days.
“Orientalism” refers to:
a. Belief in the superiority of the cultures of China, Japan, and Korea.
b. Beliefs promoting colonial conquest of Asia.
c. A fantasy view of the Middle East as the European “other.”
d. A school of European painting depicting Arab cultures in an objective, realistic way.
e. A theory of anthropology regarding Islamic cultures as not very different from
Western cultures.
Social stratification is the result of:
a. The fact that people are born with different natural talents.
b. The fact that there are several different races.
c. Theft of property by the strongest in society.
d. Human nature.
e. Unequal distribution of resources.
Which of the following is common in horticultural societies?
a. Men’s cults are closed to women.
b. Women earn their living by market trading.
c. Women control the cash crops, but men control subsistence crops.
d. Men are likely to adopt innovations rapidly, but women are not.
e. Women are key religious leaders.
The view that it is necessary to pay a surgeon a large amount of money so that people
will undertake the difficult training necessary to fill this job is this characteristic of:
a. Conflict theory.
b. Functional theory.
c. Symbolic theory.
d. Configurational theory.
e. Diffusion theory.
All of the following were part of historical moments in the development of Belizean
cuisine except:
a. Settlement by European Baymen that introduced processed and preserved breads and
meats.
b. Migration of Belizeans to the U.S. where they developed a more distinct national
Belizean cuisine that they then re-introduced to Belize.
c. Increasing numbers of tourists to Belize that cause development of more international
cuisine to cater to the tourists’ needs.
d. Reliance on an economy of slavery in which the slaves were fed on large amounts of
imported rations.
e. Growing numbers of indigenous peoples in Belize beginning to market local products
and foods.
The “cultural defense” is not considered a mitigating circumstance in U.S. courts.
What is “deep play”?
Because of global warming, the Gwich”in in northeastern Alaska are facing a high
reduction in the number of seals they harvest each year.
The Yako of Nigeria practice double descent. What are the different functions of the
matriclans and patriclans among them?
What are the six characteristics of culture?
What is the relationship between art and symbolism?
Name the six primary forms of kinship that anthropologist recognize today.
What were two functions of taxation in European colonies?
In vision quest, many Native American groups used strong emotional impulse, fasting,
isolation, self-mutilation, as well as other techniques.
What do archaeologists study?
As the cultivation of taro among the Nukumanu has declined, women have become
more dependent on men.
How have gender relations frequently been affected by foreign aid and development
programs in agricultural societies?
Even a child brought up in isolation will automatically be able to speak the language of
his or her parents.
Name three kinds of exchanges made in connection with marriage.
Some followers of the Ghost Dance religion believed that specially painted shirts would
protect them from bullets.
In anthropology, what are the characteristics of prayer?
Balanced reciprocity is typical of trading relationships among non-industrialized people
without market economies.
The term transmigrant has been coined to refer to immigrants who cut ties with their
home countries.
The example of the Kayapo of the Xingu River Basin in South America shows that
traditional people were often capable of destroying their own environments.
In a stratified society, no one is denied access to the basic material resources needed to
survive.