Malaysians divide people into three “biological” groups, Brazilians have more than
three hundred, and Americans divide people into three, four, or even five of these
groups called:
a. clines.
b. ethnicities.
c. phylogenies.
d. biomes.
e. races.
Societies in which prestige and status are stratified but wealth is not are considered:
a. ambilineal.
b. reciprocal.
c. unilineal.
d. ranked.
e. egalitarian.
Modernization is best defined as:
a. a term used to suggest that poor countries are poor as a result of their relationship to
an unbalanced global economic system.
b. a theory that predicts that former colonies would progress along the same lines as the
industrialized nations.
c. a strategy by which wealthy nations would spur global economic growth by
alleviating poverty by investing in former colonies.
d. a critique that argued that despite the end of colonialism, the underlying economic
relations in the global economy had not changed.
e. a continued pattern of unequal economic relations despite the formal end of colonial
political and military control.
In ranked societies, the social rank of each member of the society is determined by:
a. the individual skills, wisdom, or efforts of its members.
b. heredity.
c. the accumulation of material wealth.
d. hunting prowess.
e. ownership of land.
Which of the following statements is true?
a. Despite the current high rate of divorce in the United States, marriages in earlier
generations did not last any longer than those today.
b. In 1900, far fewer children lived in poverty than do today.
c. Teen pregnancy rates have increased dramatically during the past fifty years.
d. Kinship patterns of today show dramatic changes when compared to the historical
norm.
e. The increasing life expectancy has improved the stability of marriage in the United
States.
The ability of a person, group, or institution to use action or influence to affect change
is known as:
a. agency.
b. authority.
c. framing.
d. politics.
e. power.
Edward Burnett Tylor (1832″1917) is credited with crafting the first definition of which
of the following concepts utilized in anthropology?
a. hegemony
b. cultural relativism
c. ethnocentrism
d. culture
e. enculturation
Professional immigrants are:
a. immigrants who move to start businesses and conduct trade.
b. people who move in search of low-skill and low-wage jobs that native-born workers
will not fill.
c. highly trained individuals who help fill labor shortage for middle-class and skilled
occupations.
d. people who have been forced to move beyond their national borders due to natural
disasters, political or religious persecution, or violence.
e. migrants granted the right to work for a limited time but without long-term rights and
privileges.
According to the text, ________ is a primary commodity exported from Cte d”Ivoire.
a. sisal
b. tea
c. peanuts
d. cocoa
e. bananas
Which of the following is a descent group that is constructed through the mother’s side
of the family?
a. patrilineal
b. matrilineal
c. ambilineal
d. bilateral
e. cognatic
The “man the hunter, woman the gatherer” debate is based on the idea that:
a. women and men used to hunt together, but men did more of this as animals became
more aggressive.
b. in foraging societies, men bring in more food through hunting than women do
through gathering.
c. women are genetically programmed for agricultural production.
d. women typically hunt as children but stop once they become mothers.
e. during the evolutionary process, male aggression became imprinted in human DNA.
Ethnomedicine is defined as:
a. the intersection of multiple cultural approaches to healing.
b. a practice that seeks to apply the principles of the natural sciences.
c. the documentation and description of the local use of natural substances in healing
remedies and practices.
d. the comparative study of local systems of health and healing.
e. the study of the spread of disease and pathogens through the human population.
Which of the following processes is intensifying the exchange and diffusion of people,
ideas, and goods worldwide, creating more interaction and engagement among
cultures?
a. industrialization
b. neoliberalization
c. relativism
d. globalization
e. hegemony
In Zimbabwe, guerrilla fighters turned to spirit mediums to receive the blessing of
ancient Shona kings and gain legitimacy and unity in their fight against British
colonialism. This allowed them to promote what concept?
a. colonialism
b. defiance
c. nationalism
d. resistance
e. spiritualism
People whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth may
identify as:
a. hypersexual.
b. bisexual.
c. homosexual.
d. mixed gender.
e. transgender.
The scale describing a spectrum of human sexuality with exclusively heterosexual
behavior on one end and exclusively homosexual behavior on the other is known as:
a. the Human Sexuality Scale.
b. the Kinsey Scale.
c. the Harvard Scale.
d. the Malinowski Scale.
e. the Mead Scale.
According to Max Weber, the reputation, influence, and deference bestowed on certain
people because of their membership in certain groups are called:
a. class.
b. status.
c. prestige.
d. power.
e. wealth.
Argentina used soccer, polo, and the tango to unite different groups of immigrants into a
new group of people who identified with each other rather than their old homelands.
This demonstrates the concept of:
a. ethnogenesis.
b. origination.
c. syncretism.
d. conglomeration.
e. nationhood.
The author writes that all medical systems constitute a form of ________ because they
are based in a particular local cultural reality.
a. ethnomedicine
b. ethnopharamacology
c. biomedicine
d. medical pluralism
e. illness narrative
The digital divide is:
a. the gap between those fully able to participate in the digital age and those without
access to electricity, the Internet, and mobile phones.
b. social struggles for worker rights and democracy that are aided by social media,
mobile phones, and electronic communication.
c. those born after the 1980s; this generation has spent their lives using devices like
smartphones and laptops.
d. the era defined by the proliferation of high-speed communication technologies, social
networking, and personal computing.
e. the generation that uses technology, but in a process more akin to learning a new
culture or language.
The study of how people use language in its cultural context is known as:
a. descriptive linguistics.
b. ethnology.
c. participant observation.
d. sociolinguistics.
e. paralanguage.
In addition to humans, which other mammal engages in sexual activity for fun?
a. elephants
b. dolphins
c. cats
d. gorillas
e. dogs
Scientists have found that human sexuality:
a. fits into several simplistic categories.
b. is marked by diversity, flexibility, and fluidity.
c. fits into only two categories: normal and deviant.
d. always remains the same over an individual’s lifetime.
e. is impossible to quantify.
Steiner’s research among the wood carvers of Abidjan indicates that the ________ is
pivotal in determining the monetary value of art.
a. artists’ formal training
b. buyers’ perception of an object’s authenticity
c. length of time required to produce it
d. combination of colors (e.g., black and yellow are preferred)
e. exchange rate on the euro at the time of purchase
“Yan daudu use language as a tool with which to challenge the dominant norms of
________ culture.
a. northern Nigerian
b. eastern Nicaraguan
c. Antioch College
d. western Suriname
e. southern Kenyan
Archaeological evidence that offers clues to the origins of human language includes:
a. the fossilized brain casts of Neandertals that show the anatomical features for speech.
b. the existence of the FOXP2 gene, which is also found in chimpanzees.
c. the invention of the European printing press in the fifteenth century.
d. the discovery that the classic stories of English literature could be translated.
e. rules for paralanguage discovered in Egyptian hieroglyphics.
The evolution of bipedal locomotion has NOT been associated with what environment?
a. African savannah
b. African woodlands
c. lake edges in Africa
d. temperate forests of Europe
e. Asian rain forests
In order for an organism to become a fossil, it must be:
a. buried in limestone caves.
b. totally skeletonized by scavengers.
c. buried in oxygen-free sediment.
d. exposed to erosion.
e. buried in a wet, oxygen-rich environment.
When minorities abandon their separate identity and adopt the culture and norms of the
dominant group, they are practicing:
a. nationalization.
b. integration.
c. incorporation.
d. assimilation.
e. absorption.
Which of the following individuals was a student of Boas and explored the ways in
which cultural traits and entire cultures are uniquely patterned and integrated?
a. Henry Morgan
b. Bronislaw Malinowski
c. E.E. Evans-Pritchard
d. Ruth Benedict
e. Clifford Geertz
Anthropologist Clifford Geertz found that:
a. symbols used in religion acquire significance only for the actual material of which
they are made and nothing more beyond that.
b. symbols used in religion acquire significance far beyond the actual material of which
they are made and allow believers to feel that the religious world is truly real.
c. symbols are irrelevant to religious practice.
d. we cannot understand what makes religion work without understanding the
authorizing processes that give symbols their power.
e. most definitions of religion are Eurocentric.
The process by which minorities adopt the patterns and norms of the dominant culture
and cease to exist as separate groups is known as:
a. assimilation.
b. indoctrination.
c. multiculturalism.
d. nationalization.
e. naturalization.
An individual’s self-identification with a particular group that can shift according to
social location is known as:
a. ethnic variation.
b. flexible nationalism.
c. national identification.
d. rationalization of self.
e. situational negotiation of identity.
According to the text, what ended five hundred years of peace between Bosnian
Muslims, Catholic Croats, and Orthodox Christian Serbs in the former Yugoslavia?
a. ethnic and cultural policies imposed by state leaders
b. religious beliefs
c. ethnic rivalries
d. colonial interference
e. Russian influence
Anthropologists argue that kinship is one of several ways in which individuals form
groups. Name three other ways in which humans form groups and provide some
concrete examples of each. Does kinship influence how these other groups are formed?
Why or why not?
Describe the concept of hegemony, what does it does, and how it works. Provide an
example.
Explain how feminist research on gender stratification and gender roles has changed
since Margaret Mead’s pioneering research, paying particular attention to the
approaches and findings of Sherri Ortner, Michelle Rosaldo, Eleanor Leacock, and
Annette Weiner. What do we understand about how gender should be studied today?
According to the textbook, Muslim street vendors in New York City have long-standing
ties that cross the Atlantic Ocean. Discuss how these merchants are an example of
transnational entrepreneurial migrants. What is the importance of social networks in
their experience?
How families are conceptualized and formed varies across cultural groups. Define and
describe the ways in which a family of orientation and a family of procreation differ.
How does the concept of a nuclear family fit into these two concepts of family? Why is
the concept of a nuclear family more common in the United States and other Western
industrialized cultures and societies? What are some examples of other concepts of
family found in other cultures throughout the world? What may be some underlying
factors that contribute to the diverse ways in which family is conceptualized and
formed? How do you think the concept of family may change in the future, and why?
Civil society organizations have become important actors on the world stage. Discuss
what they are, where they came from, how they work, and provide examples to
illustrate your points.
Discuss how the anthropological understanding of the status of individuals of alternate
genders in Native American cultures has changed. After defining the terms berdache
and “Two-Spirits,” explain how scholars’ and activists’ views of the status and roles of
individuals in these alternate genders have changed.
Describe the four types of adaptation that have contributed to human survivability.
What are the four factors that anthropologists examine when they study childbirth
practices cross-culturally? Contrast the view and practice of childbirth in U.S. hospitals
with the typical birth experience in Sweden and Holland. What do anthropologists learn
about variations in the approaches to childbirth?
As increasing numbers of women migrate, how does the immigration experience
reshape gender roles and gender relations? Drawing from evidence discussed in the
textbook, analyze how migration enhances their social or economic status, as well as
the personal and familial costs. How are husbands, children, and other kin affected by
migration by women, and how do men experience shifts in gender roles?
Focusing on early anthropology, define the approaches of historical particularism and
structural functionalism. Who developed these approaches and what do these
approaches examine when working to learn about other cultures? How did these two
approaches differ from the preceding approach of unilineal cultural evolution?
Consider the following passage where David Harrison discusses the power of metaphor
among people who speak the Tuvan language: “If you are hopelessly in love with
someone in Tuvan, you say “My liver aches.” Because to them, the liver is the seat of
emotion. Now we know that’s not true of course. The brain is the seat of emotion, but
that doesn”t stop us from using the heart [as] the seat of emotion in American culture.”
If Harrison’s research has to do with how language shapes how people view their
reality, explain how his findings relate to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Offer examples
of how the way people think may or may not be affected by their native language.
Mutations are often caused by an environmental agent or spontaneously with no impact
on an individual’s health. However, without mutations there would be no evolution.
Explain.
What was the emphasis of William Labov’s study of the pronunciation of the letter “r”
in New York City? How did the pronunciation vary over time and in different parts of
the city? How did Labov’s research relate to the idea of how different ways of speaking
can be associated with prestige?
Global migrations often involve difficult and dangerous journeys between home and
destination. The possibilities for migrating and ways people move are profoundly
shaped by the “bridges and barriers” individuals may face. Drawing primarily on the
case study of Chen Dawei, the immigrant from Fuzhu, China, discuss some of the
bridges and barriers that can shape how and where people migrate. Compare Chen
Dawei’s story to another migrant who may not have the same bridges and may face
more barriers. What are the economic, social, and political factors that may come into
play in both home and receiving communities? Once Dawei was in New York, discuss
how the decision to migrate still likely shaped his everyday life.
Swaziland provides an illustration of the relationship between religion and its potential
to effectively help local congregations promote health and fight the spread of
HIV/AIDS. What is the current HIV/AIDS situation in Swaziland? What are health
assets? What is the general relationship between religion and health assets in
Swaziland? How might religious beliefs affect community members’ desires to access
local health assets? In what ways can local churches help address community and
individual health concerns? How does this particular example illustrate the connection
between religion and other social systems of power?
Different cultures have different visions of the meaning and value of art. Provide the
author’s definition of “art,” and use this as a starting point for explaining why Western
art became the standard for galleries and museums. Distinguish between Western and
so-called primitive art, and explain the role anthropologists played in raising awareness
of the latter. Highlight both the positive contributions attributed to and criticisms of
anthropologists relative to notions of “ethnocentrism” and the “universal gaze.” Provide
two examples to discuss how and why “primitive” or “ethnic” art has become a
collector’s item.
Explain the process of fossilization. Relate some of the critical factors necessary for
fossilization of an organism to be successful. Why are fossils rare?
What can linguistic anthropologists learn from studying the focal vocabulary of a social
group? Why would words that show a particular sophistication and that describe unique
cultural realities of a group of people be useful to investigate? Discuss one example of
how the focal vocabulary of a language has changed or may change in the future, and
discuss how men and women may have different vocabularies on particular topics.