People have to eat, but culture teaches us what, when, and how to do so. This is an
example of how
A. culture takes the natural biological urges we share with other animals and teaches us
how to express them in particular ways.
B. biology dominates culture.
C. we are all just uncultured animals.
D. individuals are powerless to alter the strong relationship between nature and culture.
E. “human nature” is a cultural construction, an idea we have in our minds that has
nothing to do with true nature.
All cultures have taboos against ________, sexual relations with someone considered to
be a close relative, although precisely what constitutes a close relative varies across
cultures.
A. levirate
B. sororate
C. fraternal
D. incest
E. exogamy
Which of the following statements about theories is NOT true?
A. Scientists evaluate theories through the method of falsification.
B. A theory is an explanatory framework that helps us understand why something
exists.
C. Predictions from theories are disproved rather than proved.
D. Theories apply only to linguistic and biological phenomena.
E. Scientists accept theories that have not been disproved.
Ethnographic evidence has revealed that traditionally, Pawnee women worked wood,
and among the Hidatsa, women made boats. Cases such as these suggest that
A. the division of labor by gender is a natural characteristic of human societies.
B. biology has nothing to do with gender roles.
C. anthropologists are overly optimistic about finding a society with perfect gender
equality.
D. patterns of division of labor by gender are culturally generalnot universal.
E. exceptions to cross-cultural generalization are actually the rule.
In Japan, the burakumin
A. are perceived as pure Japanese even though one of their parents is not Japanese.
B. are Japanese citizens of mixed ancestry who face discrimination.
C. are the cream of Japan’s racial categories, having the purest blood.
D. no longer face discrimination.
E. constitute a numerical majority in Japan.
Practice theory
A. focuses on how individuals, through their actions and practices, influence and
transform the world they live in.
B. was popularized by Margaret Mead in the 1940s.
C. is the only theoretical paradigm to effectively solve the “culture-individual” problem.
D. actually shares the same deterministic assumptions of earlier theoretical paradigms.
E. explains social phenomena only in nonindustrial societies.
What are cultural particularities?
A. traits isolated from other traits in the same culture
B. traits unique to a given culture, not shared with others
C. different levels of culture
D. the most general aspect of culture patterns
E. cultural traits of individuals rather than groups
Economic anthropologists have been concerned with two main questions, one focusing
on systems of human behavior and the other on the individuals who participate in those
systems. The first question is: How are production, distribution, and consumption
organized in different societies? The second question is:
A. Why has the myth of the profit-maximizing individual been so pervasive, despite
evidence to the contrary?
B. What are the best ways to convince individuals in funding agencies of the value of
ethnographic knowledge in the realm of economics?
C. What encourages overconsumption in Western economies?
D. What motivates people in different cultures to produce, distribute or exchange, and
consume?
E. What has been the impact of globalization at the level of individuals?
In Arembepe, Brazil, a degree of community solidarity was promoted, for example, by
the myth that everyone was kin. However, social solidarity was actually much less
developed in Arembepe than in societies with clans and lineages. Why?
A. Intense social solidarity requires not a myth but a biologically grounded genealogy
that shows people’s actual relatedness.
B. Arembepeiros who became successful were bound by social obligation to share their
wealth. This powerful leveling mechanism worked against social solidarity.
C. In societies with clans and lineages, social solidarity is much more developed,
because they have more elaborate kinship rituals than Arembepeiros do.
D. Intense social solidarity is possible only in societies having homogeneous ancestry.
In Arembepe, high ethnic diversity weakens kinship ties.
E. Intense social solidarity demands that some people be excluded. By asserting they
were all relatedthat is, by excluding no oneArembepeiros were actually weakening
kinship’s potential strength in creating and maintaining group solidarity.
What term refers to the kind of descent in which people choose the descent group that
they join?
A. neolineal
B. patrilineal
C. ambilineal
D. matrilineal
E. bilineal
The presence of more efficient respiratory systems to extract oxygen from the air
among human populations living at high elevations is an example of which form of
adaptation?
A. short-term physiological adaptation
B. cultural adaptation
C. symbolic adaptation
D. genetic adaptation
E. long-term physiological adaptation
As an aid to applied anthropology, anthropological theory
A. is now read widely throughout the commercial sector of Western economies.
B. is generally considered a drawback to practice, because it is mainly based on work
among indigenous societies.
C. promotes a systemic perspective that aids the successful implementation of
development projects.
D. is derivative and lacking in original ideas.
E. formally forbids anthropologists from doing applied work.
People in the United States sometimes have trouble understanding the power of culture
because of the value that American culture places on the idea of the individual. Yet in
American culture
A. individualism is a distinctive commercial value, a feature of capitalist culture shared
only by the business elite.
B. the cult of individualism is truly shared only by the country’s atheist minority.
C. individualism is a distinctive shared value, a feature of culture.
D. individualism is a distinctive shared value, a result of genetic enculturation.
E. individualism is only something people talk about but don”t practice, because it is
not really part of their culture.
Which of the following statements about bifurcate merging kinship terminologies is
NOT true?
A. They generally are found in societies with unilineal descent.
B. They use the same term to describe F and FB and the same term for M and MZ.
C. They generally are found in societies with unilocal residence patterns.
D. They often are found in association with the kinship distinction between parallel and
cross-cousins.
E. They use the same term to describe MB and FB.
The Human Terrain System seeks to embed anthropologists and other social scientists
within military teams in Iraq and Afghanistan. Which of the following is NOT a reason
that anthropologists and the AAA Executive Board object to the use of anthropologists
in the military?
A. Anthropologists in war zones have an ethical dilemma where their responsibilities to
their military units may conflict to their obligations to the local people they study.
B. It is difficult to give informed consent in an active war zone without feeling coerced,
thereby compromising “voluntary informed consent” in the AAA Code of Ethics.
C. Anthropologists may not be able to identify themselves as anthropologists, distinct
from military personnel.
D. Anthropologists, by the nature of their discipline, are not permitted to interact with
any military personnel.
E. The Human Terrain System conflicts with the ethical responsibility of
anthropologists to disclose who they are.
Which of the following is NOT associated with the market principle?
A. the profit motive
B. the law of supply and demand
C. impersonal economic relations
D. industrialism
E. kin-based generalized reciprocity
The Basque people, one of Europe’s most distinctive ethnic groups, have maintained a
strong ethnic identity and a language that is unrelated to any other known language.
Which of the following was a result of the forced assimilation campaign to ban
speaking and using Basque in print?
A. Ethnic pride in the Basque people is now diminished.
B. Basque parents, ashamed of their ethnicity, are refusing to teach their children their
language, opting for their full immersion in schools that teach in the national language.
C. Speaking Basque became taboo among the Basque people.
D. Strong nationalist sentiment and Basque terrorist groups were created in the Basque
region.
E. Basque is now an extinct language.
Like bifurcate merging kinship terminology, generational kinship terminology
A. is common in North America.
B. makes sense only from the perspective of ego.
C. illustrates the complicated ways in which adults confuse their children about the
realities of biology.
D. uses the same term for parents and their siblings, but lumping is more complete
(there are only two terms for the parental generation).
E. uses the same term for parents and grandparents, so there is less lumping than in the
bifurcate merging kinship system.
In anthropology, history, and literature, the field of postcolonial studies has gained
prominence since the 1970s. Postcolonial refers to
A. the study of the interactions between European nations and the societies they
colonized.
B. the period succeeding the slave trade.
C. a moral stance toward oppressed peoples.
D. the study of social movements that, instead of rejecting colonialism, actually
embraced it and transformed it for their own benefit.
E. an up-and-coming subfield in sociology.
How do chiefdoms differ from states?
A. Chiefdoms are based on differential access.
B. Chiefdoms lack socioeconomic stratification and stratum endogamy.
C. Chiefdoms lack ascribed statuses.
D. Chiefdoms have permanent political regulation.
E. Chiefdoms have full-time religious specialists.
What term refers to one of two descent groups in a given population?
A. levirate
B. sororate
C. moiety
D. patriline
E. matriline
What is the term for the variations in speech due to different contexts or situations?
A. linguistic confusion
B. situational syntax
C. contextual phonetics
D. Chomskian verbosity
E. style shifting
Anthropologists’ early interest in Native North Americans
A. is unique to European anthropology.
B. was more important than an interest in the relation between biology and culture in
the development of U.S. four-field anthropology.
C. proved early on that culture is a function of race.
D. is an important historical reason for the development of four-field anthropology in
the U.S.
E. was replaced in the 1930s by the two-field approach.
In the field, ethnographers strive to establish rapport: a good, friendly working
relationship based on personal contact
A. that is necessary to conduct any valuable research in the social sciences, not just
anthropology.
B. that, if done properly, ensures the ethnographer’s ability to conduct detached,
unbiased research.
C. achieved in large part by engaging in participant observation.
D. and if that fails, the next option is to pay people so they will talk about their culture.
E. and on payment, based on local standards, for people’s time spent with the
researcher.
In which of the following forms of political organization is it most likely that the most
important leaders will acquire their positions based upon personal background or
ability, rather than heredity?
A. tribal societies
B. feudal states
C. imagined communities
D. chiefdoms
E. agrarian, preindustrial states
According to this chapter’s “Focus on Globalization” section, Evangelical Protestantism
is most explosive in “Global South” countries. Which of the following regions is NOT
part of the Global South?
A. Middle East and North Africa
B. sub-Saharan Africa
C. Japan
D. Latin America
E. Brazil
What is the term that anthropologists use to refer to the biological father of a child?
A. pater
B. creator
C. moiety
D. genitor
E. provider
Which of the following is NOT a characteristic field technique of the ethnographer?
A. structured interviewing
B. life histories
C. random sampling
D. working with well-informed informants
E. the genealogical method
Marvin Harris’s (1974, 1978) studies of how beliefs and rituals may function as part of
a group’s cultural adaptation to its environment are an illustration of
A. how religion can play a prominent role in cultural ecology.
B. the dangers that religious effervescence can pose to the environment if it is not
contained.
C. how nonhuman primates also have a capacity for religion, although it is very limited.
D. the dangers of extending the realm of religion to nature.
E. the fact that religion is evolutionarily adaptive.
In a lineal system of kinship terminology, which of the following pairs would be called
by the same term?
A. M and FZ
B. M and MZ
C. FB and MB
D. FB and FZ
E. F and FB
What is meant by the term feminization of poverty?
A. the view that conditions of poverty are emasculating
B. the increasing representation of women among the poorest people
C. the popularity of feminist ideals among poor people
D. the recent campaign by feminists to work with the poor
E. the view that only women care about issues of poverty