Which of the following did NOT characterize the Neolithic lifeways that transformed
the central and northern regions of Europe?
a. farmers cultivated cereals and legumes, raised cattle and pigs, and collected wild
hazelnuts
b. settlements consisted of sturdy timber-framed longhouses
c. harvested crops were stored in longhouses that served as barns
d. wooden fences were unable to confine livestock from planted fields, thus limiting the
amount of plantings farmers could make
e. fertility of soils could be maintained with simple manuring
What is AIDS caused by?
a. mosquito bites
b. a bacterium
c. a mutation on a cell’s receptor site
d. a virus
e. bad meat
Until recently, H. erectus sites outside of Africa all have shown dates later than the
earliest finds of species in Africa. This has led paleoanthropologists to assume that
a. the hominins who migrated to Asia and Europe descended from earlier Asian
ancestors
b. the sites outside of Africa are misdated
c. the earliest finds in Africa are misdated
d. the hominins who migrated to Asia and Europe descended from earlier African
ancestors
e. there is another, heretofore unknown hominin, who is the missing link
Today, where are lorises not found?
a. India
b. Africa
c. Southeast Asia
d. North America
e. Sri Lanka
In a hypothetical situation, B is the allele that causes brachydactyly. If a man who has
normal fingers (bb) and a woman with brachydactyly (Bb) have children, what
proportion of these children would you expect to have normal fingers? (Hint: Use a
Punnett square).
a. None
b. All
c. 1/4
d. 3/4
e. 1/2
The Mousterian stone tool tradition
a. was developed by Homo erectus.
b. is associated with Neandertals only.
c. is found in Asia only.
d. is found in Western Europe only.
e. is not always associated with just Neandertals, since sometimes it is found with
modern humans.
What does K-selection refer to?
a. species that produce large numbers of offspring and invest little to no parental care
b. species that become extinct after a few generations
c. species that produce relatively few offspring but invest a large amount of parental
care
d. only egg-laying species
e. all species except primates
Animals with a nerve cord along the back and gill slits during some developmental
stage are called which of the following?
a. insects
b. invertebrates
c. chordates
d. metazoans
e. underdeveloped
In regions where malaria is present, it acts as a selective agent that favors the
heterozygous phenotype, because people with sickle-cell trait produce more offspring
than those with only normal hemoglobin, who may die of malaria.
Several events had combined to alter Western Europeans’ ideas about the earth by the
18th century. These did not include
a. the circumnavigation of the globe
b. the discovery of the New World
c. the notion of a sun-centered universe
d. a less than rigid feudal class system
e. “arguments from design”, meaning structures were engineered to meet purposes for
which they were designed
Which of the following statements about tool use by the earliest protohominins is
correct?
a. Stone tools were regularly manufactured.
b. They formed a central part of trade strategies.
c. They likely used tools in a manner similar to modern chimpanzees and bonobos.
d. They are identified as tools by archaeologists.
e. They were stones that were sharpened.
Eastern Archaic cultures of North America reinforced their claims to homelands by
a. engaging in the potlatch ceremony
b. laying out cemeteries for their dead or building earthwork mounds
c. building large sedentary coastal villages
d. including grave goods in every burial
e. hunting aurochs in abundance
The La Chapelle-aux-Saints skeleton is not a typical Neandertal
a. and therefore not considered to be a Neandertal.
b. because it represents what is most likely a deliberate burial.
c. because is that of an older male.
d. because, as a specimen, it is a nearly complete skeleton.
e. because the individual not only had arthritis of the spine but evidences an extreme in
the Neandertal range of variation.
The fossil evidence indicates that the Eocene primates were
a. mostly extinct by the end of the Eocene
b. not widely distributed
c. likely provide direct evidence of a close connection to humans
d. ectothermic
e. water animals
Radiometric dating techniques
a. are not based on the phenomenon of radioactive isotope decay rates
b. can be used to determine the absolute age of organic materials
c. include the K/Ar but not carbon-14 methods
d. are a form of stratigraphy
e. are relative dating techniques
What is the false belief that there is a relationship between physical traits and certain
behavioral traits such as intelligence and morality?
a. eugenics
b. monogenism
c. polygenism
d. biological determinism
e. homeostasis
Melanocytes
a. are cells that produce carotene
b. are found in the dermis
c. only occur in dark-skinned individuals
d. produce melanin
e. cause cancer
The switch from hunting and gathering to agriculture in Egypt has been explained as
the result of
a. diffusion from the Near East
b. increasing sedentism
c. population nucleation along the Nile due to reduced rainfall
d. the lack of sufficient animal resources
e. profuse pastures across the region
The discovery of evolutionary principles first took place in western Europe, made
possible by
a. advances in scientific thinking that began in the 18th century
b. understanding by Christians that there was a recent origin of life on earth
c. the cohesive theory formulated by Arabs, Indians, and Chinese that species were
continuously changing
d. advances in scientific thinking that date back to the 16th century.
e. the central importance placed on evolution by physical anthropologists.
Sahelanthropus has an unusual combination of characteristics, including
a. a small braincase, huge browridges, small vertical face, and lack of shearing
canine/premolar arrangement
b. a large braincase and huge browridges
c. a small braincase and small muscle attachments in the rear of the cranium
d. a small vertical face and small browridges
e. a large vertical face and small browridges
Which of the following best describes the physical characteristics of the earliest human
skeletons from the Americas?
a. They closely resemble modern Native Americans.
b. They display generalized traits common among Ainu and Australian populations.
c. They represent a blend of Asian and European traits.
d. They resemble Upper Paleolithic European populations.
e. They do not show similarities with any other populations.
Potassium-40 (40K)
a. decays to the gas, argon-40 (40Ar)
b. decays to carbon-14
c. has a full-life of 1.25 billion years
d. is the same as carbon-14
e. is destructive and therefore not used by paleoanthropologists
Mendelian traits are described as discrete, or discontinuous because
a. Their phenotypic expressions overlap
b. Their phenotypic expressions do not fall into clearly defined categories
c. Their genotypic expression overlap
d. Their genotypic expressions do not fall into clearly defined categories
e. Their phenotypic expressions do not overlap
The term used to describe the post-Pleistocene cultures in the Middle East is:
a. Upper Paleolithic
b. Mesolithic
c. Epipaleolithic
d. Archaic
e. Middle Paleolithic
_____________________refined the existing system of classifying biological
organisms into a binomial system.
a. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
b. Georges Cuvier
c. Carolus Linnaeus
d. George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon
e. Erasmus Darwin
______ is the practical application of the subfields of anthropology.
a. Linguistics
b. Archaeology
c. Applied anthropology
d. Physical anthropology
e. Cultural anthropology
Domestication and agriculture were not the driving forces of the so-called Neolithic
revolution.
a. True
b. False
In the lower Tigris-Euphrates Valley, __________________poisoned the fields once
farmed by Ubaidians and Sumerians.
a. the Black Death
b. Neolithic herders
c. severe soil erosion
d. high levels of salts
e. animal grazing
The sum of the genetic, fossil, and archaeological evidence suggests that Neandertals
a. are closely related to modern humans
b. are a fully separate biological species
c. were probably incapable of fertilely interbreeding with modern humans
d. represent several points in the dynamic process of speciation
e. were not successful hominins
Which of the following best describes the nature of Maya political organization?
a. an empire centered at Tikal
b. territorial states encompassing many large centers
c. two independent polities in the lowland and highland areas
d. independent city states and associated local centers
e. a loose confederation of allied city-states
Who coined the term “biology”?
a. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
b. Georges Cuvier
c. Thomas Malthus
d. Charles Darwin
e. Charles Lyell
Cultural anthropology
a. was first developed as a discipline in the 17th century
b. includes the recovery and analysis of material culture from earlier civilizations
c. focuses solely upon the study of traditional societies
d. has no practical application in modern society
e. is the study of the patterns of belief and behavior found in modern and historical
cultures.
Why is mutation an important element in accounting for the variation in mtDNA? What
are the factors that redistribute genetic variation?
Answer:Will vary
What are the benefits of studying nonhuman primates in wild environments, as opposed
to captive environments? What is the greatest challenge facing physical anthropologists
conducting primate research today?
Answer:Will vary
Compare and contrast the social organization of orangutans, gorillas, and common
chimpanzees.
Answer:Will vary
Explain the differences between relative and chronometric (absolute) dating techniques.
Give an example of one relative technique and three chronometric techniques.
Answer:Will vary
What are three sites that provide evidence for the earliest occupation of the New World?
Answer:Will vary
What is a state? What characteristics set it apart from other forms of social
organization?
Answer:Will vary
Describe the political organization of Egypt.
Answer:Will vary
Define genetic drift. How are founder effect and genetic drift related?
Answer:Will vary
What are the different models used to explain the peopling of the New World. Discuss
the evidence used to support or refute each model.
Answer:Will vary
The interaction of both physical and cultural aspects of hominin behavior is known as
a biocultural evolution
b. mosaic evolution
c. bio-cognition
d. taphonomy
e. paleoecology
Explain the historical views on human variation.
Answer:Will vary
Explain the importance of archaeobotanical studies to the scientific understanding of
ancient human plant use.
Answer:Will vary
What are specific biological and cultural clues that point to Asian ancestry for the
earliest American populations? Why are they controversial?
Answer:Will vary
Define three major forms of primate locomotion. Name at least one species associated
with each.
Answer:Will vary
Describe the origin of writing of the Sumerians. What kinds of information are typically
recorded?
Answer:Will vary
What types of features and artifacts that characterize the Oldowan tradition?
Answer:Will vary
Explain what “the anthropological perspective” means.
Answer:Will vary