Karl Marx argued that capitalists increased their wealth by extracting the surplus labor
value from which of the following?
a. factories
b. natural resources
c. industries
d. workers
e. products
In late nineteenth-century debates on American immigration, many scholars and
government officials privileged immigrants from northern Europe over those from
southern Europe, such as Italians and Greeks, because the officials felt these southern
people were a separate and inferior biological race with primitive ways. This is an
example of:
a. elitism.
b. ethnocentrism.
c. genocide.
d. ethnocide.
e. caste boundaries.
Which of the following statements about long-term consequences of Japanese migration
to Brazil in the twentieth century is accurate?
a. The surplus of workers in Japan increased pressure for migration toward Latin
America.
b. The Japanese government embraced them warmly by offering them public services.
c. Many have returned to Japan but continue to embrace Brazilian culture.
d. Nearly 250,000 Japanese Brazilians have moved to Chile since the 1990s.
e. Japanese Brazilians abandoned cultural traditions of Brazil when they returned to
Japan.
In addition to intensifying the worldwide movement of people, money, data, goods, and
services, ________ has transformed the flow of images and sounds through new media
technologies.
a. visualization
b. socialization
c. globalization
d. migration
e. mediation
According to the text, in the contemporary world, global cities are characterized by all
of the following EXCEPT:
a. a well-developed infrastructure.
b. local transportation and communications systems.
c. a skilled labor force.
d. large-scale industrial manufacturing.
e. advanced communication technology.
Community members who guide, advise, and teach the ethnographer during fieldwork
are called:
a. cultural collaborators.
b. research stakeholders.
c. key informants.
d. primary subjects.
e. research aides.
Which of the following statements does NOT reflect the description of biomedicine in
the text?
a. It has spread because it encompasses an aura of modernity and progress.
b. It draws heavily on European enlightenment values.
c. Its values of individualism and rationality are not universally held.
d. Social factors rather than the human body are the focus of treatment.
e. It is closely linked with Western economic and political expansion.
The total value of what someone ownsincluding stocks, bonds, and real estateminus any
debt, such as a mortgage, student educational loans, or credit card debt, is considered:
a. wealth.
b. investments.
c. income.
d. profits.
e. wages.
The borrowing of cultural traits and patterns from other cultures is a concept in
anthropology known as:
a. stratification.
b. unilinealism.
c. evolution.
d. innovation.
e. diffusion.
What happened in the United States in 1965 that shifted patterns of immigration?
a. The United States passed the National Origins Act.
b. The immigration from Eastern Europe and Italy reached its peak.
c. The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed.
d. A wall spanning the U.S.”Mexico border was completed.
e. The policy of restricting immigrants with quotas by nationality was ended.
Collective group actions in response to uneven development, inequality, and injustice
that seek to build institutional networks to transform cultural patterns and government
policies are referred to as a(n):
a. crusade.
b. cultural enterprise.
c. initiative.
d. public cause.
e. social movement.
Patterns of reciprocity:
a. no longer exist in societies with contemporary economic relations, which tend to be
organized around the exchange of money for services.
b. still exist, even in contemporary societies that base economic relations on the
exchange of money for services.
c. are a feature of human culture that emerged relatively recently in our history.
d. are not a characteristic of egalitarian or ranked societies.
e. have their roots in the rise of intensive agriculture and populous market towns.
Most people in the world practice which type of descent as their primary strategy to
track kin group membership?
a. matrilineal
b. monolineal
c. polylineal
d. patrilineal
e. colineal
Changing patterns over time demonstrate that marriage, family, and kinship are cultural:
a. stances.
b. constructs.
c. biases.
d. positions.
e. misnomers.
Which of the following is a system of power based on wealth, income, and status that
creates an unequal distribution of a society’s resources?
a. class
b. ethnicity
c. sexuality
d. gender
e. race
The author states that immigrants to ________ recognized him because of media he has
participated in while visiting their village in rural China.
a. Shanghai
b. New York City
c. London
d. Rio de Janeiro
e. Toronto
The widespread idea in the nineteenth century that it was okay to discriminate against
nonwhite people (Italian, Irish, Jewish, and African) because they were biologically
different, and not fully human, was called:
a. eugenics.
b. institutional racism.
c. fascism.
d. miscegenation.
e. white supremacy.
In the United States, most Americans believe that jobs and status in society should be
based on ability and achievement. It is considered inappropriate to gain high
government office for being someone’s wife, brother, or cousin. Hiring family members
who may not be qualified for a position is known as nepotism and considered a serious
abuse of power. This belief, which prevents Americans from favoring family members
over other people who are more qualified, is an example of what concept?
a. agency
b. dogma
c. framing
d. hegemony
e. mind-set
Cultural anthropologists like to hang out with the people they are studying as they
work, celebrate, dance, or play games, and ask lots of questions while they are doing it.
This is known as:
a. ethnocentrism.
b. participant observation.
c. active research.
d. cognitive study.
e. ethnology.
The ________ of any language refers to names, ideas, and events that offer a catalogue
of what is spoken, and can be compiled into a dictionary.
a. dialect
b. grammar
c. lexicon
d. pidgin
e. paralanguage
Haiti is a significant former colony because:
a. it was the first nation to gain independence from a colonial power.
b. it became the first independent former colony to be ruled by people of African
descent.
c. it was the first colony in the Caribbean to gain independence from Portugal.
d. widespread migration from Haiti to Britain occurred after Independence.
e. a film depicting the torture of Haitian nationalists was banned in France.
According to the text, studying the patterns and importance of sounds as spoken by a
group of people helps linguistic anthropologists:
a. establish local kinship patterns.
b. identify how emotions are conveyed through nonverbal communication.
c. locate the eldest members of a community.
d. understand the elements and rules of a particular language.
e. determine how long a specific language has existed.
The author does NOT discuss ________ as an example of ecological crisis.
a. monsoons and flooding in Bangladesh
b. heat waves and droughts in the United States
c. a rise in temperatures across the globe
d. food shortages despite farm mechanization
e. an increase in the number of underground aquifers in Asia
People from the high-altitude highlands of South America develop larger lung capacity
in order to process more oxygen; however, if these individuals move to a lower altitude,
the size does not reverse because:
a. acclimatization is permanent.
b. advantageous phenotypic traits are genetically determined.
c. this trait is a variation that results from only genetic factors.
d. this is a permanent developmental adaptation.
e. this adaptation changes the individual’s DNA.
A key to the biomedical model is:
a. using scientific means to diagnose a disease.
b. asking patients to name their condition.
c. seeking underlying cultural bases for illness.
d. recognizing that all bacteria are potentially harmful to the human body.
e. seeking natural cures for illness.
When a civil society prepares for war, it includes production of weapons and the
glorification of war, and though it is often contested, this process is called:
a. arming.
b. fortification.
c. imperialism.
d. militarization.
e. mobilization.
As described in the textbook, early international trade routes existed between ________
more than two thousand years ago.
a. North America and South America
b. the South Pacific and Hawaii
c. the Middle East and Southeast Asia
d. North America and eastern Africa
e. Central America and the Caribbean
Which of the following is defined as a closed system of social stratification in which
members are organized into hierarchically ranked groups with unequal access to
rewards and privileges based on ascribed status?
a. class
b. gender
c. race
d. caste
e. ethnicity
Who describes spoken languages and preserves them as written languages?
a. linguistic archaeologists
b. descriptive linguists
c. ethnolinguists
d. historic linguists
e. sociolinguists
Dark-skinned people are found in equatorial regions because:
a. dark skin protects against heat.
b. those populations are the oldest evolved groups.
c. dark skin is a genetic adaptation to ultraviolet radiation.
d. the skin contains excessive amounts of vitamin D.
e. dark skin confers resistance to malaria.
According to Keith Basso, the Apache tradition of “being shot by an arrow” during a
conversation refers to:
a. instances that suggest violent incidents in the past.
b. the process used to prepare corn for planting.
c. how elders show neighboring groups where sacred sites are located.
d. altercations that take place between Apaches and outsiders.
e. the telling of stories, usually by elders, with themes intended to make a point.
Ida Susser’s initial research focused on:
a. HIV/AIDS prevention in Brazil (South America).
b. the student movement at Kent State University (Ohio).
c. social change in Brooklyn (New York City).
d. the end of apartheid in South Africa.
e. child mortality in Appalachia (United States).
Most ethnic groups establish traits that set them apart from others and identify members
of their own group. These are known as:
a. culturally significant traits.
b. ethnic boundary markers.
c. ethnic-making projects.
d. national consciousness.
e. social signifiers.
Discuss where and when agricultural production is first seen in the historical record.
What technologies does this subsistence strategy entail? Identify and explain changes
that occur with the transition to the agricultural subsistence strategy, providing a total of
three examples of social, political, and demographic changes that occur in societies
practicing agriculture that occur with food production that are not seen in horticultural,
pastoral, or foraging lifestyles.
Explain how the idea of “white” or “whiteness” changed over time in the United States.
How did sexology contribute to establishing heterosexuality as the dominant erotic
ideal in the United States? Despite his findings that human sexuality is marked by
diversity, flexibility, and fluidity, in what two ways did Kinsey’s research contribute to
the establishment of heterosexuality as the dominant erotic ideal? Do you think this
ideal remains in U.S. culture today? Why or why not?
Define the term “kinetic orality” and describe the circular relationship Kyra Gaunt
documented between the games black girls play and commercial hip-hop culture,
especially as it pertains to the construction of gender.
Class is a topic that is not commonly discussed among most people in the United States,
and yet it is a system of stratification that continues to affect peoples’ daily lives. How
often and in what context do you talk about class issues with family and friends? In
what class position would you classify yourself and your family? How do you know
what category to use to identify your class position? Does your class position differ
from that of your parents or grandparents? Why or why not? Does your class position
differ from that of your friends? Why or why not? What types of efforts do you make to
increase your social mobility, and do you think the efforts will indeed help you increase
your class position at some point in your lifetime? Given what you know about your
own class position, why do you think that class is not commonly talked about in U.S.
society? What other types of social stratification are more commonly discussed in
public and how might they be drawing attention away from class issues?
Evaluate the merits of the long-term participant observation advocated by Bronislaw
Malinowski relative to merits of the methods of “armchair” anthropology.
Antonio Gramsci (1891″1937) described hegemony as one of two primary aspects of
power. Define hegemony and provide a minimum of two concrete examples of how it
serves as a form of power. What is the second aspect of power that Gramsci described
and how does it differ from hegemony? Which of the two aspects of power do you
believe is likely to be more effective and why?
The concept of the American Dream emphasizes and promotes the notions of
meritocracy and social mobility as central to both national identity and the experiences
of U.S. citizens. These notions assume that all citizens have equal opportunity for
upward social mobility regardless of current class position. What is meritocracy and
how does it relate to social mobility? Are both concepts experienced equally by U.S.
citizens today regardless of class position? What are three examples of how class can
affect individuals’ experiences with meritocracy and social mobility? Given what you
have read in the chapter on class and inequality, do you believe the American Dream is
equally attainable to all U.S. citizens? Why or why not? Do you think the American
Dream will become more equally attainable in the future? Why or why not?
Economists clearly reveal that both the income and wealth gaps in the United States are
widening substantially. What is the difference between income and wealth? Can an
individual have high income but little wealth? Which households tend to be at the
bottom of the income and wealth gaps and which households are at the top? What are
some of the reasons for the income and wealth disparities that exist in the United States
today? Why are the U.S. income and wealth gaps widening despite increased
globalization and access to educational opportunities? How do one’s income and wealth
affect his or her social mobility? What other systems of social stratification affect an
individual’s income and wealth and in what ways? How does Pem Davidson Buck’s
work with poor white people in rural Kentucky reflect how income and wealth are
affected by other forms of social stratification?
In a brief essay, compare and contrast how the Bafokeng and Native American tribes
have formed corporations to achieve specific goals. Use specific examples from the
class to illustrate your answer.
Early anthropologists suggested that all cultures would naturally evolve through the
same sequence of stages regardless of location or historical experience. What was this
concept called and who were three of its early proponents? What were the three primary
stages that all cultures pass through according to this anthropological approach? In your
opinion, what are some implications that an approach such as this could have on how
societies are perceived around the world?
Explain how globalization is affecting the Marshall Islanders and why they are
concerned about what happens in industrial countries. Do they have a reason to be
troubled? What about other countries?
What are the effects of migrations on populations left behind? How has transnational
migration reshaped the relationship that migrating individuals have with their sending
communities? Explain how information technology and the ability to travel
internationally have reshaped how people interact with family members in households
with migrants, using evidence from the textbook.
Define three fieldwork strategies anthropologists use to research their ethnographies,
and describe the context in which each is used.
Anthropologist Marvin Harris developed the theory of cultural materialism, which is
built on Karl Marx’s analysis of the way in which the material conditions of a society
shape its other components. What is the basic premise of Harris’s theory of cultural
materialism, and how does it relate to religion? How can Harris’s theory be applied to
explain why cows are sacred in India? What is an example of a religious practice that
people engage in within the United States that could be explained using the theory of
cultural materialism? Do you think Harris’s theory is useful in examining religion and
religious practices? Why or why not?
The process of becoming “male” or “female” occurs during childhood and youth.
Provide two specific examples of ways that parents start this process by “doing gender.”
Provide two specific examples of ways that participating in sports reflects personality
traits (e.g., gentleness vs. competitiveness) commonly associated with women and men
in the United States. Provide specific examples from the text of ways that the behaviors
are reinforced. How is this tied to the constructions of masculinity inherent in the “fag
discourse” in U.S. high schools? Why does it benefit girls to act masculine?
Explain how ethnographers can explore global phenomena by conducting fieldwork at
the local level.