Chapter 13
Human Adaptation to a Changing World
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Over the course of our evolutionary history, most environmental stressors were climatic
and geographic. Now, however, ______________________.
a. humans have little environmental stressors, climatic or geographic
b. chimpanzees have more environmental stressors, as well as those they have brought
upon themselves
c. gorillas have more stressors than chimpanzees
d. humans face a series of new environmental stressors of their own making
e. none of the above
2. What ethical dilemma was involved in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study?
a. a group of poor, African-American men was intentionally infected with syphilis in
order to study the progress of the disease among minorities
b. a group of poor, African-American men received the wrong medication for their
illness and were denied entrance to a hospital
c. adequate treatment was withheld, without notification, from a group of poor, African–
American men
d. adequate treatment was withheld, without notification, from a group of poor, African–
American women
e. none of the above
3. Over the millennia humans have had to adapt to environmental extremes of
_______________.
a. wetness, dryness, heat
b. cold, heat, high winds
c. heat, high altitude, dryness
d. high altitude, cold, heat
e. none of the above
4. Darwin’s theory of _______________ accounts for the discrete genetic changes built into
the allele frequencies of populations.
a. random genetic shift
b. physiological adaptation
c. natural selection
d. directional selection
e. developmental adaptation
5. Adaptation depends upon _______________.
a. the individual’s willingness to participate
b. the interaction of all alleles
c. three primary genes
d. multiple interacting genes
e. the individual’s mortality rate
6. _______________ is credited with discovering the features of the human growth curve.
a. Bronislaw Malinowski
b. Clifford Geertz
c. Franz Boas
d. Margaret Mead
e. Leslie White
7. Anthropologists have shown that human growth involves _______________.
a. only one period of rapid growth at puberty and otherwise relative quiet and slow
growth
b. two periods of rapid growth at infancy and immediately after puberty
c. periods of slow change until adulthood
d. periods of constant, slow change
e. periods of alternating growth spurts and slower rates of growth
8. Which of the following represents a secular trend?
a. hormonal levels are affected by increasing levels of stress in urban environments
b. there has been an increase in “diseases of development,” such as diabetes
c. the age of menarche varies from place to place
d. immigrant children are taller than their parents
e. all of the above
9. Short-term changes in response to a specific environmental stimuli are called
_______________.
a. congenital changes
b. genetic shifts
c. temporal changes
d. developmental adaptations
e. physiological adaptations
10. _______________ has focused on the study of reproductive biology and human health,
pioneering techniques for hormonal analysis.
a. Peter Ellison
b. Franz Boas
c. Annette Weiner
d. Margaret Mead
e. none of the above
11. Evolutionary forces have shaped human reproductive physiology into a system capable of
precise responses to _______________.
a. religious training
b. intuitive factors
c. environmental stimuli
d. mechanical triggers
e. all of the above
12. Individuals who are adapted to high elevation in mountainous regions _______________.
a. possess a remarkable ability to tolerate oxygen deprivation
b. acclimatize, making short term changes
c. experience increased respiratory rate, cardiac, output, and pulse rate
d. wear less clothing than people in hot climates
e. are no different than any other human.
13. Acclimatization is _______________.
a. short-term physiological adjustments made in response to fetal stress
b. long-term physiological adjustments in response to specific environmental stimuli
c. long-term developmental adjustments in response to specific environmental stimulus
d. short-term developmental adjustments in response to fetal stress
e. adjustments that vary from person to person and cannot be affected by cultural
adaptation
14. The tendency for the bodies of mammals living in cold climates to be shorter and rounder
than members of the same species in warmer climates is called _______________.
a. hunting response
b. secular trend
c. Ellison’s rule
d. Allen’s rule
e. Bergman’s rule
15. A _______________ is the cyclic expansion and contraction of blood vessels of the limbs
in order to prevent frostbite while maintaining heat in the body core.
a. secular trend
b. developmental adaptation
c. physiological adaptation
d. hunting response
e. gathering response
16. Which of the following is not an adaptation to cold stress?
a. hunting response
b. melanin production
c. Bergman’s rule
d. Allen’s rule
e. All of the above are adaptations to cold stress.
17. Each human has approximately _______________ sweat glands that spread out over a
greater surface area on tall, thin bodies, facilitating water evaporation and heat loss.
a. 3 million
b. 500,000
c. 5 million
d. 1 million
e. 2 million
18. Cultural adaptations, such as housing, diet, and clothing, _______________.
a. are more efficient
b. alleviate stress and promotes high levels of adaptation
c. both alleviate and create stress
d. are faster than they were at any prior point in human history
e. no longer function
19. A patterned set of ideas and practices relating to illness is called _______________.
a. medical treatment plan
b. medical pluralism
c. a medical system
d. a Western medical plan
e. a disease system
20. To effectively compare medical systems and health cross-culturally, medical
anthropologists have made a theoretical distinction between _______________.
a. Western medicine and folk medicine
b. doctors and health practitioners
c. medical systems and folk medicine
d. “diseases of health” and “mental sickness”
e. the terms “disease” and “illness”
21. Many traditional healers are referred to by the name _______________.
a. health practitioners
b. diviners
c. folk doctors
d. shamans
e. doctors
22. A key component of the social process of illness in cultures with scientific medical
systems involves identifying categories about sickness in terms of _______________.
a. cultural adaptations
b. the extended family
c. the nuclear family
d. society
e. human biology
23. A disease that is widespread in a population is _______________.
a. indigenous
b. entoptic
c. endemic
d. endogamic
e. none of the above
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24. Down Syndrome occurs about once in every _______________ births.
a. 300
b. 700
c. 175
d. 400
e. 600
25. In Mali, Katherine Dettwyler found that _______________.
a. there was more medical treatment and more prejudice against peoples with disease
and handicaps
b. there was less medical treatment available and less prejudice against people with
disease and handicaps
c. there was more medical treatment and less prejudice against people with disease and
handicaps
d. handicaps were extremely rare
e. disease was very common and rarely treated
26. Medical anthropologist Emily Martin has shown that scientific depictions of infectious
disease draw upon _______________. Common to the culture of the United States
a. fantasy imagery
b. military imagery
c. social imagery
d. animal imagery
e. education imagery
W 27. In 1996, _______________ became the first country to guarantee free antiretroviral
access and collaborating with civil and religious groups to develop appropriate
counseling, education, and prevention programs to all of its citizens.
a. France
b. Switzerland
c. United States
d. Brazil
e. Sweden
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W 28. Smallpox killed _____________ people in the 20th century alone.
a. 380 million
b. 230 million
c. 450 million
d. 300 million
e. 1 billion
W 29. Which of the following is classified as a “prion” disease?
a. leshmaniasis
b. schistosomiasis
c. mad cow disease
d. Down Syndrome
e. AIDS
W 30. How does the prion function inside the human body?
a. it increases blood flow to the brain and liver
b. it grows into tumors and cuts off blood supply to major organs
c. it breaks down cells and causes hemorrhaging
d. it grows rapidly and suffocates other proteins
e. it can cause the reorganization and destruction of other proteins
W 31. Which of the following factors has contributed to the transmission of kuru?
a. colonialism
b. cultural practices of cannibalism
c. a prion agent
d. all of the above
e. none of the above
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W 32. Medical pluralism is _______________.
a. an approach to human sickness and health combining principles of evolutionary
theory and human evolutionary history
b. a difference in the health status between the wealthy elite and the poor in stratified
societies
c. the presence of multiple medical systems, each with its own practices and beliefs in a
society
d. a patterned set of ideas and practices relating to illness
e. none of the above
W 33. Human population rose at a steady rate until _______________ when it began to increase
much more rapidly.
a. the colonization of the New World
b. the Middle Ages
c. the Age of Enlightenment
d. World War I
e. the Industrial Revolution
34. Approximately _______________ people in the world are undernourished.
a. 37 million
b. 89 million
c. 243 million
d. 345 million
e. 1 billion
35. Structural violence refers to _______________.
a. physical harm caused by exploitative and unjust social, political, and economic
systems
b. psychological harm caused by exploitative and unjust social, political, and economic
systems
c. conditions caused by repression, environmental destruction, poverty, hunger, illness
and premature death
d. all of the above
e. none of the above
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36. How did Yaqui Indians become exposed to pesticides?
a. the Yaqui Indians are farmers who use high-level pesticides for their crops
b. the Yaqui Indians suffer from acid rain because of their location in a valley area
c. the Yaqui Indians make and sell pesticides to others
d. the Yaqui Indians were poisoned by government agents
e. none of the above
37. The Yaqui children exposed to high levels of pesticides had problems associated with
each of the following except:
a. high level of malaria
b. difficulty in hand-eye coordination
c. less stamina
d. difficulty in large motor coordination
e. impaired drawing ability
38. The shipping of pollution wastes between countries is an example of _______________.
a. health disparities
b. hunting response
c. exploitation
d. structural violence
e. medical pluralism
W 39. Which of the following anthropologists worked with the Yaqui Indians?
a. Ashley Montagu
b. Jared Diamond
c. Johann Blumenbach
d. Johann Schroeder
e. E. A. Guillette
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W 40. Which of the following is an example of a hormone-disrupting chemical?
a. SIDS
b. AIDS
c. DES
d. PVC
e. DVD
TRUE/FALSE
W 1. Biology and culture shaped human experience in the past, but they do not cause changes
today.
W 2. Franz Boas demonstrated that the human physical growth ceases at adulthood.
W 3. Human growth patterns are constant and steady over time.
W 4. Typical lowlanders can make both long– and short-term physiological adjustments to high
altitude.
W 5. Secular trends allow anthropologists to make inferences about environmental effects on
growth and development.
6. The tendency of mammals living in warm climates to have relatively shorter appendages
(arms and legs) is called Allen’s rule.
7. Among humans, both males and females have a hunting response.
8. Disease refers to a specific pathology: a physical or biological abnormality.
9. Illness refers to the meanings and elaborations given to a particular physical state, but
Human Adaptation to a Changing World
always overlaps with the meaning of disease.
10. Disease cannot exist in the absence of illness.
11. Medical categories reflect the value system of the particular culture.
12. The United States offers free retrovirus access to all of its citizens with AIDS.
13. A prion is a protein that has genetic material that behaves as an infectious particle.
14. Kuru is found all over Papua New Guinea.
15. Structural violence occurs when impersonal structural power undermines the well-being
of others.
16. Starvation is more common in poor countries or those beset by years of political turmoil.
17. At least 51 chemicals, and many in common use, are now known to disrupt hormones.
18. Eighty-five percent of the food cans in the U.S. are lined with hormone-disrupting
chemicals.
Chapter 13
MATCHING
Match the person with his or her contribution to the field of anthropology
a. discovered the human growth curve
b. encountered a child with Down’s Syndrome in Mali
c. studied the effects of environmental stimuli on reproductive physiology
d. won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering prions
e. studied kuru disease among the Fore
1. ______ Peter Ellison
2. ______ Katherine Dettwyler
3. ______ Stanley Prusiner
4. ______ Franz Boas
5. ______ Shirley Lindenbaum
SHORT ANSWER
1. Describe the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.
2. What are some examples of structural violence in your community or the world today?.
3. What are examples of health disparities in the past and today?
4. Describe the human growth cycle, as demonstrated by Franz Boaz.
5. What is acclimatization and what role does it play in human adaptation to high altitude
environments? Has this ever affected you?
Human Adaptation to a Changing World
6. Compare and contrast Bergman’s rule and Allen’s rule, providing examples of each.
7. What is the role of medical anthropology in the world today?
8. Does your understanding of illness and disease agree with the anthropological
distinction? Are there examples of illness without disease with which you are familiar?
9. Combating infectious disease draws upon military imagery common to the culture of the
U.S. What imagery would capture the meaning without the violence associated with
military imagery?
10. What are examples of older transportation that is more sustainable for the planet’s future?
11. Distinguish between structural violence and health disparity.
12. Why were Yaqui Indians suffering toxic effects of pesticides?
13. Give some examples of hormone-disrupting chemicals.
ESSAY
1. Describe how biology and culture shape human experience today.
2. Describe the various biological mechanisms that enable humans to adapt to their
environment.
3. What specific challenges are presented by the high altitude environment and what
mechanisms are involved in human adaptation to high altitude by permanent residents
and lowlanders?
4. How did the field of medical anthropology develop and what does it contribute to the
study of humans and culture? What are the major challenges to the field in the future?
5. Should the sale and use of pesticides be regulated globally? Are there potentially
damaging toxins in use in your school, house, apartment, or community?
6. Do you agree that disease can exist without illness? Provide an example.
7. Using Mali as an example, describe how cultures treat disease differently. Do you know
another example?
8. How do we manage environmental and toxic health risks that present serious
consequences but are often not apparent until years or even decades later? Is information,
alone, enough to prevent impact on human gene pools?
9. What is an example of a worldview that sees humanity as part of the world, rather than as
master over it?
10. What does it mean to have a sense of social responsibility that recognizes and affirms
respect among ethnic groups as well as our collective stewardship for the earth we
inhabit? Can you give an example from your own life?
11. How does globalization affect health conditions worldwide?
12. What have been the primary consequences of China’s “One Child” policy?