1. A theory is:
a. a basis for further investigation.
b. an unproven proposition.
c. an educated opinion.
d. a statement about how things are related.
e. a hunch about how things are related.
2. Anthropological theories in the 21st century are:
a. developed independently of the theories of the earliest anthropologists.
b. merely hypotheses that anthropologists use in the field to help guide them.
c. often built upon what was learned from earlier theories.
d. entirely new concepts due to rapid modernization of the United States.
e. no longer based on the simple ideas of the 18th century theories.
3. Nineteenth century evolutionary theory was developed by:
a. Clifford Geertz.
b. Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict.
c. Ruth Benedict and Franz Boas.
d. Edward Tylor and Lewis Henry Morgan.
e. Marvin Harris and Claude Levi-Strauss.
Chapter4—TheGrowthofAnthropologicalTheory
4. In 19th-century evolutionary theory, the stages of __________ were proposed.
a. savagery, barbarism, and civilization
b. primitive, transitional, and modern
c. small-scale, traditional, and complex
d. European, Asiatic, and American
e. none of these choices
5. Tylor’s and Morgan’s theories of evolution presented a ___________ interpretation of human differences.
a. theological
b. biological
c. cultural
d. geographical
e. national
6. Morgan proposed that the three stages of savagery were associated with:
a. monumental architecture.
b. food collecting.
c. the domestication of plants and animals.
d. the acquisition of human language
e. the development of early state societies.
Chapter4—TheGrowthofAnthropologicalTheory
7. Which of the following is NOT true of evolutionism?
a. It is an ethnocentric theory because evolutionists put their own societies at the top of the ladder.
b. It argues that all cultures pass through the same developmental stages in the same order.
c. This theory proposes that evolution is unidirectional (or unilineal) and leads to progressively better levels of
culture.
d. The theory argues that changes in society are caused by changes in culture.
e. Evolutionism takes an inductive approach to analyzing other societies.
8. The diffusionists focused their theory on:
a. the principle of evolution as the major explanatory reason for cultural variability.
b. different levels of cultural borrowing to explain cultural diversity.
c. inductive methodology.
d. a general law to explain all aspects of human life.
e. the idea of materialism and technology as the basis of cultural diversity.
9. The school of diffusionism could not explain any of the following EXCEPT:
a. why some traits diffused when others did not.
b. what conditions bring about diffusion of a cultural item.
c. what determines the rate of cultural diffusion.
d. how cultural contact leads to culture change.
e. where the primary centers of invention were located.
Chapter4—TheGrowthofAnthropologicalTheory
10. Diffusionism and evolutionism had which of the following in common?
a. The idea of a deductive approach
b. The idea of a single center for the invention of culture
c. The idea of a straight line of cultural evolution that was universal
d. The same explanation for cultural diversity
e. The importance of Europe as the center of innovation and change
11. American historicism was developed by:
a. Melville J. Herskovits.
b. ClaudeLéviStrauss.
c. Ruth Behar.
d. Franz Boas.
e. Bronislaw Malinowski.
12. Franz Boas argued that the discipline of anthropology needed:
a. the careful collection of empirical data on as many specific cultures as possible.
b. the development of complex theory to guide fieldworkers.
c. theory that clarified how contact with other people was the single most important factor in shaping any
society’s culture.
d. theory that emphasized the environment as the single factor determining a culture.
e. theory that focused on geography as the major cause of cultural complexity.
Chapter4—TheGrowthofAnthropologicalTheory
13. Boas trained nearly the entire first generation of American anthropologists, including:
a. Alfred Radcliffe-Brown.
b. Edward Tylor.
c. Ruth Benedict.
d. Marvin Harris.
e. Clifford Geertz.
14. The two theorists (one in England and one in the U.S.) who were of great importance to fieldwork were:
a. Tylor and Morgan.
b. Boas and Morgan.
c. Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown.
d. Boas and Malinowski.
e. Mead and Geertz.
15. The functionalist concept of universal function means:
a. that every component of a culture has a use.
b. that social structure is universal.
c. that individual needs are universal.
d. that culture is an integrated whole.
e. that technology is the foundation of society.
Chapter4—TheGrowthofAnthropologicalTheory
16. The notion of dysfunction was proposed by:
a. Merton to refer to stress or imbalance in a cultural system.
b. Radcliffe-Brown to refer to stress or imbalance in a cultural system.
c. Malinowski to refer to unintended or unrecognized functions of culture.
d. Levi-Strauss to refer to unintended or unrecognized functions of culture.
e. Boas to refer to the lack of ethnographic data and theoretical evidence.
17. Which theory examines unequal relations in and among societies as far as the use and exploitation of natural
resources?
a. Functionalism
b. Cultural materialism
c. Political ecology
d. Political economy
e. Ethnoscience
18. All of the following are characteristics of political economy EXCEPT:
a. it examines the issues of conflict, ideology, and power.
b. it studies how power relations between groups are linked to the physical environment.
c. it tends to be descriptive as an ethnographic approach.
d. it focuses on marginalized people.
e. it works to try to make a difference in people’s lives.
Chapter4—TheGrowthofAnthropologicalTheory
19. All of the following are criticisms of political economy EXCEPT:
a. sometimes it overemphasizes political structure.
b. sometimes the research is apolitical (not political enough).
c. sometimes the research places too much emphasis on policy.
d. sometimes it is not focused on people at all.
e. sometimes the research does not contain any economic data.
20. Psychological anthropology was developed by:
a. psychologists rather than anthropologists.
b. various anthropologists interested in the relationship between personality and employment.
c. students of Boas interested in the question of the relationship of personality and culture.
d. individuals with no interest in the impact of child-rearing on human societies.
e. obstetricians working to improve the lives of women and children.
21. Margaret Mead, in her research in Samoa:
a. concluded that the emotional turbulence of adolescents in the United States is culturally rather than biologically
based.
b. concluded that there are fixed gender roles regardless of the culture of origin.
c. discovered that adolescence was universally difficult for both children and parents and required intervention
from other members of society.
d. demonstrated the importance of genes rather than cultural conditioning.
e. discovered the participant observation fieldwork method that would be used by all anthropologists afterwards.
Chapter4—TheGrowthofAnthropologicalTheory
22. Edward Sapir felt that culture existed:
a. outside of the individual and exerted pressure upon the person.
b. within the community itself and was best witnessed through peer pressure.
c. only at the regional level and that cultural diversity did not exist.
d. within the interactions of individuals.
e. as a material item only.
23. Leslie White and Julian Steward developed the theory of:
a. ethnoscience.
b. psychological anthropology.
c. neoevolutionism.
d. diffusionism.
e. evolutionism.
24. Leslie White, in his theory, focused on the harnessing of energy and:
a. the relationship of ideology to environment.
b. the relationship between the structure of the human brain and the development of technology.
c. humans’ use of technology to “capture energy.”
d. the productive nature of human labor.
e. the expression of human personality.
Chapter4—TheGrowthofAnthropologicalTheory
25. Leslie White argued that the driving force of cultural evolution was:
a. the complexity of language.
b. political complexity.
c. religion.
d. ideological progress.
e. the amount of energy available.
26. The theoretical analysis of interaction between culture and environment that argued that particular cultures evolved
independently of others is called:
a. multilinear evolution.
b. unilineal evolution.
c. universal evolution.
d. neoevolutionism.
e. solitary evolution.
27. French structuralism concentrates on:
a. human adaptation to the environment.
b. level of technological achievement.
c. the identification of mental structures that undergird social behavior.
d. the political and economic structures of societies.
e. social roles and institutions.
Chapter4—TheGrowthofAnthropologicalTheory
28. LéviStrauss’sapproachemphasizestheimportanceof:
a. certain codes, programmed into the human mind, which make it impossible for humans to learn more than one
culture.
b. certain codes, programmed into the human mind, which are responsible for shaping cultures.
c. cultural traits, which universally have the same function.
d. social roles and institutions within society.
e. universal social roles and institutions.
29. Why are binary oppositions significant to French Structuralism?
a. They are believed to be the primary mode of human thought.
b. Binary oppositions are the most stable way that societies are structured.
c. Dual oppositions are based on dual gender roles (male-female).
d. Structuralist theory argues that it is through opposition that society overcomes ethnocentrism.
e. Binary oppositions are not significant to French Structuralism.
30. Which of the following is a primary weakness of French Structuralism?
a. It does not focus on interesting cultural questions.
b. There is too much fieldwork associated with this theory and very little application.
c. The theory takes account solely of European cultures and is ethnocentric.
d. Structuralism is too psychological in its approach.
e. It is a theory that cannot be tested empirically.
Chapter4—TheGrowthofAnthropologicalTheory
31. Ethnoscience, like French structuralism, does all of the following EXCEPT:
a. draws upon a linguistic model.
b. seeks explanation in the human mind.
c. views human behavior from a logical or rational perspective.
d. uses binary oppositions as a primary means of approaching phenomena.
e. is difficult to test empirically.
32. The primary aim of ethnoscience is to:
a. understand a culture from the point of view of the people themselves.
b. identify the universal rules found in all the societies of the world.
c. describe a culture in terms of the categories of the ethnographer.
d. do a complete ethnoscientific study of every aspect of a culture.
e. understand how culture changes over time.
33. IntheCrossCulturalMiscueinyourtextbook,theword“parallel”ispresentedfromanethnoscientificpointofview.
Whatdoestheword“parallel”meantomostJapanesepeople?
a. Things that run in tandem side by side
b. Things that are not in agreement
c. An approach that creates unity
d. A particular kind of geometric shape
e. A form of high bar used in gymnastics
Chapter4—TheGrowthofAnthropologicalTheory
34. What did the use of participant observation contribute to the New Hope Antipoverty Program?
a. It led to more accurate survey data and allowed the researchers to better understand why people chose to be
homeless.
b. Participant observation contributed to the collection of quantitative data.
c. Through participant observation, Gibson and Weisner were able to make lifelong friendships with the
individuals in the poverty program.
d. By using participant observation, Gibson and Weisner were better able to understand the quantitative data.
e. By using participant observation, Gibson and Weisner were better able to understand the qualitative data.
35. Why did the researchers in the New Hope Antipoverty program decide to implement qualitative methodology?
a. They did not understand the quantitative data that they were gathering.
b. They found a great deal of variability in the way people in the program made choices.
c. The researchers were anthropologists and had been trained to use qualitative field methods.
d. Qualitative methods were the only kinds of data-gathering that the local people would allow.
e. Use of qualitative methodology was required by the grant agencies involved in this program.
36. Which of the following anthropologists is NOT associated with the school of feminist anthropology which emerged in
the 1960s and 1970s?
a. Annette Weiner
b. Ruth Benedict
c. Louise Lamphere
d. Sherry Ortner
e. Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo
Chapter4—TheGrowthofAnthropologicalTheory
37. Which statement best describes feminist anthropology?
a. It takes an objective/scientific approach to the study of society.
b. It posits that gender should not be considered as a major variable influencing cultural behavior.
c. It strongly embraces a value-free orientation.
d. It seeks to describe and explain the female perspective in cultural life.
e. It is a theory that argues that women and men are equal in all societies and cultures.
38. Cultural materialism:
a. is wedded to the emic approach.
b. emphasizes the etic approach.
c. avoids participant-observation.
d. was created by Ruth Benedict.
e. studies cultures but does not focus on the individual.
39. Cultural materialism:
a. holds that material conditions determine human thoughts and behavior.
b. assumes the viewpoint of the native informant.
c. studies only cultural artifacts.
d. is a philosophical system based on qualitative data.
e. is a theory that argues all cultures change in similar directions.
Chapter4—TheGrowthofAnthropologicalTheory