1
The primary objects of interest to a culture historian are
(A)
artifacts and structures.
(B)
artifacts and art.
(C)
burial sites and art.
(D)
burial sites and architecture.
2
Various, often short-lived schools of archaeological thought focusing on the roles of people
and their involvement in cultural change and other nonenvironmental aspects of culture
change is known as
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
The answer is postprocessual archaeology.
3
Flannery and Marcus applied which approach to discover an ideological shift that
rationalized social inequality throughout Zapotec domains?
(A)
palynology
(B)
cultural ecology
(C)
cognitive-processual archaeology
(D)
postprocessual archaeology
The answer is cognitive-processual archaeology.
4
Guilá Naquitz Cave in Mexico’s Valley of Oaxaca, which was sporadically occupied by
hunter-gathers over the span of a few thousand years, is important because of a study on
(A)
pottery.
(B)
bean and squash cultivation.
(C)
bone divination.
(D)
early goat herding.
The answer is bean and squash cultivation.
5
The Shoshone people of the Great Basin in the western United States are famous for their
The answer is artifacts and structures.
(A)
mobility.
(B)
pottery.
(C)
bean and squash cultivation.
(D)
bone divination.
6
Researchers have re-created an Iron Age settlement in Butser, England, as a way to
experiment with prehistoric
(A)
farming methods.
(B)
tool technology.
(C)
ranching methods.
(D)
weapons technology.
Feedback:
The answer is farming methods.
7
Lewis Binford’s study of caribou hunting among the Nunamiut people of Alaska is an
example of
(A)
ethnoarchaeology.
(B)
ethnographic analogy.
(C)
functionalism.
(D)
palynology.
Feedback:
The answer is ethnoarchaeology.
8
Explain how Swedish botanist Lennart von Post used fossilized pollen to change the way
archaeology is done.
Answer:
9
Name and describe the four broad steps for constructing culture history. Discuss how these
steps build on one another to produce a synthesis of the past.
Answer:
10
Discuss the discoveries at Waka, Guatemala. What is known about the two remains found?
How does this information expand our understanding of Maya culture? What else do
researchers hope to discover at the site?
Answer:
11
Define the following terms: component, phase, region, culture area, horizon, and tradition.
How are they related?
Feedback:
The answer is mobility.
Answer:
12
Archaeologists describe cultural evolution along diverse tracks ‒ which is often
conceptualized as a bush ‒ as
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
13
Processual archaeology involves all of the following elements EXCEPT
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Feedback:
The answer is cognitive archaeology.
14
Developing and testing hypotheses, performing cumulative research, and engaging in
replicable experimentation is termed
(A)
the scientific method.
(B)
inductive reasoning.
(C)
deductive reasoning.
(D)
experimental archaeology.
Feedback:
The answer is the scientific method.
15
Culture history is based on the fundamental principles of
(A)
horizons and inevitable variation.
(B)
descriptive research methods and a normative view of culture.
(C)
identification of a research area and site survey.
(D)
artifact analysis and synthesis.
Feedback:
The answer is descriptive research methods and a normative view of culture.
16
Archaeological geographic areas of research in which general cultural homogeneity is
evidenced are called
Feedback:
The answer is multilinear cultural evolution.
(A)
culture areas.
(B)
regions.
(C)
components.
(D)
horizons.
17
Which of the following can be explained in similar terms as natural selection in biological
evolution?
(A)
cultural selection
(B)
survival of the fittest
(C)
diffusion
(D)
social adaptation
Feedback:
The answer is cultural selection.
18
The process by which new ideas or cultural traits spread from person to person, group to
group, or over long distances, is called
(A)
cultural selection.
(B)
invention.
(C)
diffusion.
(D)
social adaption.
Feedback:
The answer is diffusion.
19
Thor Heyerdahl’s research that included sailing a balsa raft from Peru to Polynesia offers
evidence to indicate
(A)
that Peruvians colonized Polynesia in prehistoric times.
(B)
nothing; few people accept Heyerdahl’s conclusions.
(C)
a causal link between migration and the phases of the archaeological record that indicate a
change in culture.
(D)
an ocean journey across the eastern Pacific was not possible using an ancient Andean raft.
Feedback:
The answer is nothing; few people accept Heyerdahl’s conclusions.
20
Carefully excavated sites to document the process of colonization indicate that the
voyagers who colonized Tahiti and Hawaii did so as
(A)
deliberate exploration.
Feedback:
The answer is cultural areas.
(B)
a prelude to aggression.
(C)
a way to integrate themselves into a new culture.
(D)
to escape from religious persecution.
21
A process of reasoning in which some shared similarities are used to assume other shared
similarities is termed
(A)
tradition.
(B)
analogy.
(C)
cultural selection.
(D)
ethnoarchaeology.
The answer is analogy.
22
The school of thought in archaeology that argues that cultures are integrated in various
ways that influence each other in reasonably predictable ways is called
(A)
functionalism.
(B)
analogy.
(C)
inductive reasoning.
(D)
deductive reasoning.
The answer is functionalism.
23
A researcher living in Tanzania in order to study the people who still live by hunting and
gathering there is performing
(A)
experimental archaeology.
(B)
a descriptive method.
(C)
ethnoarchaeology.
(D)
processual archaeology.
The answer is ethnoarchaeology.
24
Instead of thinking of change in the past as a simple, linear process, modern archaeologists
view change in terms of
(A)
increasing complexity.
(B)
cultural selection.
(C)
general systems theory.
The answer is deliberate exploration.
(D)
cultural ecology.
25
Define general systems theory. Why is this construct appealing to archaeologists? Discuss
an example of how the systems perspective provides a conceptual framework for looking at
ancient sites and settlements.
Answer:
The answer is increasing complexity.