CHAPTER 1
Prehistoric Communal Institutions in the Middle East
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
1. The four basic features of any society include
a. customs, laws, norms and ideology
b. hunting, gathering, fishing, and agriculture
c. religion, the family, the political process, and industry
d. technology, economic institutions, social institutions, and ideology
2. Institutions may be defined as
a. more or less coherent systems of ideas about how society works and how we should
behave within a given society
b. processes through which a society provisions itself with the goods and services that it
needs to survive and grow
c. sets of customs, laws and norms that influence human behavior
d. ways that human beings produce goods and services
3. Productivity is a measure of
a. the amount of inputs available in a given society
b. the amount of output produced by a given society
c. the amount of output produced by each input
d. the methods and tools used to produce goods and services
4. According to Charles Darwin, the process of natural selection operates as follows:
a. Individuals who are the most fit will survive.
b. Individuals who do not adapt to their environment will not survive.
c. Individuals with the behavioral traits best suited for survival will have the highest
reproduction rate.
d. Individuals with the genetic traits best suited for survival will have the highest
reproduction rate.
5. What is the basis of our knowledge of early communal societies that existed tens of
thousands of years ago?
a. Anthropologists study myths and folklore passed from generation to generation.
b. Archaeologists examine artifacts found in early dwellings and graves.
c. Religious leaders in prehistoric societies wrote histories in ancient languages on the walls
of caves.
d. Scholars study and translate documents found in prehistoric ruins.
6. Which of the following are examples of economic institutions found in early communal
societies?
a. early stone tools
b. hunting and gathering
c. the church or similar religious institution
d. the extended family
7. How did early societies make decisions that affected the entire community?
a. all important decisions were made by the strongest male of the group.
b. decisions were always made by the hereditary head of government.
c. major decisions were made by the oldest female of the group.
d. most decisions were made collectively.
8. Racial prejudice and discrimination was probably unknown in early communal societies.
Why?
a. Members of different races were part of a full-time religious priesthood.
b. Members of each group were parted of the same extended family.
c. Discrimination was prohibited by early government leaders.
d. Members of different races were inducted into armies or navies.
9. The interaction of technology and ideology of early communal societies
a. led to a continual search for new and better tools.
b. meant that considerable effort was devoted to creating weapons to wage war against other
communities.
c. produced considerable instability in early societies
d. strengthened habits and traditions and a distrust of change
10. In early communal societies, ideas of cooperation and collective action
a. contributed to social anxiety and instability.
b. meant that all members of prehistoric societies lived long and happy lives.
c. were necessary for basic survival.
d. were prohibited and punishable by death.
11. An ideology
a. is the process through which a society provisions itself with the goods and services it
needs to survive and grow. .
b. is the way that human beings produce goods and services.
c. is a more or less coherent system of ideas about how society works and how individuals
should behave within the society.
d. is always true.