Leveling mechanisms are ways of evening out the distribution of wealth in society.
Which of the following is not an example of a leveling mechanism?
a. The Mexican cargo system whereby wealthy adults take turns in sponsoring religious
feasts.
b. The inheritance pattern by which all of a man’s children share equally in his property.
c. Witchcraft accusations against especially prosperous persons.
d. The welfare and social security systems of modern industrialized nations.
e. A public stock offering by a private firm in a capitalist society.
Human children appear to be programmed to learn language instinctively before the age
of:
a. 6 months.
b. 3 years.
c. 6 years.
d. 12 years.
e. 21 years.
A critical form of cultural knowledge typically passed from fathers to elder sons in
Maasai society is:
a. Hunting techniques in a marginal environment.
b. Environmental knowledge and how livestock is moved.
c. Market trade and economic partners.
d. Traditional healing techniques.
e. Means of contacting the supernatural and asking for abundance.
Neocolonialism refers to:
a. The idea that although nations were no longer colonized, many institutions of
colonialism remained.
b. A new form of colonialism in the 21st century.
c. The process of finding ways for America to maintain direct power in European
nations post World War II.
d. The process of regaining lost culture in a formerly colonized nation.
e. The idea that strong cultural exchanges should be maintained between a formerly
colonized nation and its colonizer.
Social stratification is most characteristic of:
a. Rank societies.
b. Pastoral societies.
c. Fishing societies.
d. Horticultural societies.
e. Societies with high levels of social complexity.
If your society has avunculocal residence, then, after marriage, a new couple will be
expected to live with:
a. The husband’s family.
b. The wife’s family.
c. The chief’s family.
d. Their maternal grandmother’s family.
e. The husband’s mother’s brother’s family.
Your investigation of two different languages reveals that their basic vocabularies differ
by 28 percent. Using Glottochronology, you determine that some historical event
caused the groups speaking these languages to separate:
a. 500 years ago.
b. 1000 years ago.
c. 1500 years ago.
d. 2000 years ago.
e. Insufficient information to answer question.
What is the “gray zone” that Philippe Bourgois describes in his work among the
homeless and drug addicts in San Francisco?
a. It is a geographical area in which drug exchanges take place.
b. It is a term used to refer to homeless shelters and parks where these individuals
interact.
c. It is a morally ambiguous space that blurs the lines between victims and perpetrators.
d. It is a term used to describe under-employment because it leads to the destruction of
their lives.
e. It is a judicial term to describe exchanges that are morally wrong, but not illegal.
The right of an individual or family to use a piece of land and pass that land to
descendants, but not to sell or trade the land is called:
a. Private property.
b. Rights of lien.
c. Patrimonial rights.
d. Usufruct right.
e. Rights of inheritance.
The role of anthropologists in the debate over reparation is:
a. Always on the side of the culture seeking to get back an artifact.
b. Always on the side of the nation seeking to maintain current ownership of an artifact.
c. Equivocal, they not only understand the point of view of the artifacts original culture
but also see advantages in not repatriating artifacts.
d. Anthropologists rarely have an opinion on this debate.
e. Anthropologists generally believe artifacts should be held by institutions that employ
anthropologists.
In newly established colonies, the most important role of taxes was:
a. To support the cost of the colonial government.
b. To provide an immediate profit for the colonizing country.
c. To extend central government control into small villages.
d. To pay the cost of building roads and bridges in the colony.
e. To force colonial subjects to work for Europeans or produce products they desired.
The anthropologist Walter Cannon argued that sorcery:
a. Could kill people through an “extreme stress reaction.”
b. Backed the power of the wealthy in society.
c. Was an entirely anti-social force that societies must strive to eliminate.
d. Could not be effectively differentiated from witchcraft.
e. Was present in Africa but not in Europe or Asia.
Increasing beef consumption led to changes in the meat packaging industry. These
included:
a. Increased importance of unions.
b. Increasing use of unskilled immigrant labor.
c. Rising wages for workers.
d. Increasing need for highly educated work force.
e. Movement of meat packing industry from rural to urban areas.
A critical thing that anthropology teaches us is:
a. To the greatest degree possible, indigenous cultures should be preserved intact for
future generations.
b. Efforts at global development will ultimately fail because of human nature.
c. In general, traditional people had better ways of doing things than modern people do.
d. Problems we face are ultimately not the result of human nature, and thus, solutions
are possible.
e. Ultimately, and inevitably, people will solve the problems and dilemmas that face
modern cultures.
The Christian notion that reenacting the Last Supper stands for communion with God is
an example of:
a. Superstition.
b. Science.
c. Prophecy.
d. Magic.
e. Symbolism.
Which development approach focuses on projects aimed at giving the poorest people in
the world access to clean water, education, and health care?
a. Structural adjustment.
b. Basic human needs approaches.
c. Modernization.
d. Post-modernization.
e. Neoliberalism.
An important way of resolving conflict in band-level societies involves all of the
following except:
a. Ridicule.
b. Individuals moving from one band to another.
c. Contests between individuals.
d. Public confession.
e. Imprisonment.
A material function of sacrificing cattle as part of a religious festival suggests that:
a. Cattle stand for the deviant members of society and killing them purifies society.
b. Communal feasts are an effective way of distributing meat in societies without
refrigeration.
c. Meat is not an important resource in societies that practice such sacrifice.
d. People who sacrifice animals have little understanding of ecology or proper animal
husbandry.
e. Only weak, sick, and elderly beasts are actually killed, thus proper management
techniques are enshrined in religious ritual.
In anthropology, the issue of human rights:
a. Is not relevant, because anthropologists believe in cultural relativism.
b. Can be difficult, as different cultures define rights differently.
c. Is at the forefront of doing anthropological research, as researchers are not allowed to
work in countries where there is warfare.
d. Is not important, because there are no inalienable human rights.
e. Prevents anthropologists from doing research overseas.
A dialect is:
a. A language that contains fewer than 1,500 words.
b. Language that is used in informal social settings.
c. Language that is used by less powerful groups in society.
d. Speech that consciously breaks the grammatical rules of language.
e. A language that does not have a logical system of grammar.
One area of recent success for hijras in India is:
a. Music.
b. Painting.
c. Film making.
d. Publishing.
e. Politics.
Who were the Heeren XVII (The Lords Seventeen)?
a. The admirals of the Dutch Navy.
b. The colonial governors of Indonesia.
c. The tax paid to the government to trade slaves.
d. The Dukes who partitioned Africa.
e. The directors of the Dutch East India Company.
The critical factor that distinguishes anthropology from other fields of study is:
a. Its emphasis on rigorous experimentation and analysis of data.
b. Its exclusive focus on non-Western cultures.
c. Its use of theories of biological evolution to explain human behavior.
d. Its interest in describing humankind throughout time and in all parts of the world.
e. Its focus on the discovery of a single human nature.
According to anthropologist Laura Klein, Tlingit men:
a. Resent women’s power.
b. Are supportive of women taking leadership roles in the community.
c. Blame women for the break-up of Tlingit families.
d. Share equally in domestic chores so women can work.
e. Initiate a high degree of domestic violence.
In France, the growing number of Muslim immigrants has led to:
a. Greater tolerance of religion throughout French society.
b. A requirement that all students be taught Christianity in public schools.
c. A series of terror attacks aimed at forcing French authorities to officially recognize
Islam.
d. The outlawing of headscarves in public schools.
e. Legislation that supported equal rights for men and women.
Which of the following has been a hallmark of American anthropology?
a. Ethnocentrism.
b. Ethnology.
c. Participant observation.
d. Multiculturalism.
e. Holism.
Within the discipline of anthropology, globalization has:
a. Decreased the need for anthropologists.
b. Tended to increase the political involvement of some anthropologists.
c. Enabled anthropologists to use technology to do fieldwork without leaving their
offices.
d. Allowed anthropologists to become members of native cultures to a greater extent
than before.
e. Made it easier for anthologists to publish their findings.
European governments were often reluctant to colonize because:
a. They feared rebellion by the natives.
b. They believed in the “Rights of Man” and were morally opposed to controlling other
peoples.
c. It meant building infrastructure and that was expensive.
d. They could rarely find people who wished to serve as officials in the colonies.
e. They feared that it would lead to interracial marriage and they were opposed to this.
Polyandry is adapted to a number of different economic and demographic
circumstances. Among the Toda of South India, it is an adaptation to the:
a. Shortage of land.
b. Need for men to be away as soldiers for long periods of time.
c. Shortage of females, created by female infanticide.
d. Low birth rate of females as compared with males.
e. High degree of occupational specialization.
All of the following are characteristics of religion except:
a. Ritual.
b. Stories.
c. Symbols.
d. Practitioners.
e. Music.
All of the following are adaptive aspects of a Karen house except:
a. It is made of bamboo.
b. It is raised about 6 feet off the ground.
c. It has a peaked roof.
d. It does not contain a kitchen.
e. It has a place for water containment on the verandah.
Which of the following best characterizes the history of development projects in the
years since independence?
a. They have generally not been successful.
b. After a poor start, their success improved dramatically in the mid 1960s.
c. They were highly successful until the end of the Cold War but have generally failed
since that time.
d. They have been highly successful in Latin America and Africa but failed elsewhere in
the world.
e. Though there have been a few failures, development efforts have generally been
highly successful.
Which of the following correctly characterizes the Hopi growing of blue corn?
a. When they farm blue corn, they live their religious understanding of the world.
b. They have mixed feelings when they grow blue corn because, though it is necessary
to make traditional foods, it is associated with impurity and evil.
c. Only women can grow blue corn, because only women possess generative earth
powers.
d. Hopi look down upon those who grow blue corn, because it represents both poverty
and old-fashioned values.
e. Hopi spend little time growing corn but much time growing beans, because corn has
little religious significance.
Conflict theory holds that the natural condition of society is:
a. Order and stability.
b. Sex and violence.
c. Conflict and change.
d. Happiness.
e. Misery.
Allison Truitt’s work on motorcycles in Vietnam had no formal research hypothesis.
A leveling mechanism is a practice or form of social organization that evens out wealth
in a society.
Tourism in traditional societies has led to the emergence of artist as a special and
distinct occupational specialization.
Name three advantages of using a plow in agriculture.
Relatives by marriage are called consanguineal kin.
A study that analyzes culture using Western scientific theories is called an etic
ethnography.
What did Paul Bloomberg mean by the term “America’s forbidden thought”?
What major challenges are the Gwich”in of northeastern Alaska facing as a result of
global warming?
What is corvee labor?
Cultural relativism is the perceptual bias that prevents us from seeing the logic in other
cultures.
Taxation in the colonies allowed native people to become independent.
A household is similar to a firm because both are defined as groups that are united by
kinship and have goals to increase their size indefinitely.
Franz Boas spent most of his professional career at the University of Berlin in
Germany.
How does political leadership vary between tribes and chiefdoms?
World music incorporates musical styles from cultures all over the world.
How does the individual trace descent in a system of double descent?
How is anthropology different from other social science disciplines as far as
occupational skills today?
Chiefdoms are stratified societies.
Anthropologists generally agree that they should defend Western notions of human
rights.
One source of conflict between Croats and Serbs is that Croats are Christians and Serbs
are Muslims.