What postmarital residence rule is most often found in societies with lineal kinship
terminologies?
A.ambilocal
B.neolocal
C.patrilocal
D.matrilocal
E.bilocal
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
In the anthropological study of political systems, social control maintains social norms
(cultural standards) and regulates conflict. Which of the following is NOT a form of
social control?
A.hegemony
B.shame
C.making subordinates believe they will eventually gain power
D.exogamy
E.gossip
This chapter’s “Focus on Globalization” section discusses the strides different countries
have made to close the gender gap. Which region has done the least to correct
gender-based inequality?
A.North America
B.Africa
C.Latin America
D.Middle East/North Africa
E.Nordic countries
All of the following are evidence of the tendency to view culture as a process EXCEPT
A.analysis that attempts to establish boundaries between cultures.
B.practice theory.
C.attention to agency in anthropological analysis.
D.interest in public, collective, and individual dimensions of day-to-day life.
E.interest in how acts of resistance can make and remake culture.
Research on the communication skills of nonhuman primates reveals their inability to
refer to objects that are not immediately present in their environment, such as food and
danger. The ability to describe things and events that are not present is called
A.cultural transmission.
B.displacement.
C.linguistic imagination.
D.phonology.
E.productivity.
Anthropologists have an interest in sports because, as the media’s illustrations of U.S.
football suggest,
A.sports can symbolize certain key aspects of the culture in which they are highly
popular.
B.sports are a rare aspect of culture that is influenced by culture but not vice versa.
C.sports allow for easy cross-cultural comparison, because in the international arena the
way sports are practiced is the same.
D.they give insight into unfamiliar cultural dynamics that have nothing to do with the
general culture.
E.they exemplify how the media determine single-handedly which sports are popular
and which are not.
According to Marx, who are the bourgeoisie and the proletariat?
A.the products of gender differentiation from Europe’s tribal past
B.groups destined to reconcile through the postcapitalist process of alienation
C.distinct and opposed classes produced by the world capitalist economy
D.exogamous social groups
E.moiety groups that dominated Western capitalism
Anthropologists distinguish between kin terms and genealogical kin types. What is the
difference?
A.Kin terms refers to the actual genealogical relationship; genealogical kin types are the
words used for different relatives in a particular culture.
B.The difference is only a methodological onein practice, they are the same thing.
C.Kin terms are the words used for different relatives in a particular language, but
genealogical kin types refers to the actual genealogical relationship.
D.Kin terms are the words used for socially constructed relationships, whereas
genealogical kin types refers to relatives.
E.Kin terms are the terms used for different relatives from the ego’s perspective,
whereas genealogical kin types refers to objective relatives from no perspective in
particular.
Which of the following groups see a sharp divide between themselves and other
religions, as well as between a “sacred” view of life and the “secular” world?
A.mainline Protestants
B.Haredi Jews
C.Pentecostals
D.Hindus
E.Communitas
What is the term for the marginal or in-between phase of a rite of passage?
A.voodoo
B.mana
C.taboo
D.liminality
E.animism
Which of the following kinds of religion involves part-time religious specialists in
foraging societies?
A.communal religion
B.shamanistic religion
C.Olympian religion
D.individualistic cults
E.idiosyncratic belief systems
Of the following factors, which is historically correlated with the shrinking of the
female factory workforce in the United States?
A.European immigration around 1900
B.World War II
C.voting rights for women
D.inflation
E.the women’s rights movement
Ethnographic study of the workplace
A.provides evidence that economic factors are fundamental to understanding
differential productivity.
B.is routinely performed by employees of the U.S. federal government.
C.is not very useful, because all workplaces are becoming increasingly homogeneous,
compared to 20 years ago.
D.provides close observation of workers and managers in their natural setting.
E.is required of all organizations that want to become not-for-profit, according to the
American Anthropological Association.
Among the Agta of the Philippines, women not only gather, they also
A.fish, while carrying their babies with them.
B.are the primary warrior class, unless pregnant or breastfeeding.
C.cultivate small food plots inside village defenses.
D.hunt, while carrying their babies with them.
E.are the tribal leaders.
Rituals serve the social function of creating temporary or permanent solidarity among
peopleforming a social community. We see this also in practices known as
A.mana.
B.liminality.
C.animism.
D.totemism.
E.fundamentalism.
Which of the following is most characteristic of foragers?
A.unilineal descent and ancestor worship
B.territoriality and organized warfare
C.high mobility and small groups with flexible affiliations
D.a redistributive economy and specialized leadership roles
E.permanent villages and full-time priests
A Nuer woman married to a woman can be the pater of a child she did not father. Native
American berdaches, biological men who represent a third gender, sometimes assume
the role of a wife when married to a man with whom they share the products of their
labor. Cross-cultural examples such as these illustrate
A.that the concepts of gender and marriage are more socially constructed in some
societies than in others.
B.how, if they were to be made legal, same-sex marriages could easily benefit from the
same legal rights different-sex marriages already enjoy.
C.the rare social phenomenon of polyandry.
D.how same-sex marriages make good economic sense.
E.how Edmund Leach was wrong to suggest that all societies define marriage similarly.
Interpretive anthropologists such as Clifford Geertz approach the study of culture as
A.a diachronic phenomenon.
B.functional puzzles.
C.a system of meaning.
D.underlying sets of rules that must be deciphered through the analysis of cultural
patterns.
E.distinct from human psychology.
Which of the following does NOT occur in moving along the cultivation continuum?
A.Population density increases.
B.Societies become more egalitarian.
C.Village size increases.
D.Villages are located closer together.
E.Land is used more intensively.
Which of the following statements about U.S. racial categories is true?
A.They are applied to endogamous breeding populations.
B.They are biologically valid, as demonstrated by the Phipps case in 1970s Louisiana.
C.They are based on global racial categories that vary little among societies.
D.They are based on genetics, whereas Japan’s are based upon undemonstrated descent.
E.They are culturally arbitrary, even though most people assume them to be based in
biology.
The work of which of the following anthropologists illustrated a renewed interest in
cultural change and even evolution (although of a very different sort than Tylor and
Morgan had in mind)?
A.Ruth Benedict
B.Max Gluckman
C.Victor Turner
D.Julian Steward
E.Margaret Mead
What is an age set?
A.a village council
B.a pantribal sodality that represents a certain level of achievement in the society, much
like the stages of an undergraduate’s progress through college
C.all men and women related by virtue of patrilineal descent from a human apical
ancestor
D.all men and women related by virtue of matrilineal descent from a nonhuman apical
ancestor
E.a group uniting men born during a certain span of time in some pastoral African
societies
Robert Bellah (1978) coined the term world-rejecting religion to describe most forms of
Christianity, including Protestantism. More generally, world-rejecting religions
A.are shamanistic religions that reject the encroachment of capitalism and modernity.
B.reject the material world and focus on the body’s internal biological balance.
C.are a recent historical phenomenon.
D.tend to reject the naturalthe mundane, ordinary, material, secularworld and focus
instead on a higher realm of reality.
E.focus on the effects that heavenly bodies such as the moon, sun, and Mars have on
social life.
Which of the following statements about chimpanzee call systems is NOT true?
A.They consist of a limited number of sounds.
B.Like language, they include displacement and cultural transmission.
C.They consist of sounds that vary in intensity and duration.
D.Calls cannot be combined when multiple stimuli are present.
E.They are stimuli dependent.
Culture can be adaptive or maladaptive. It is maladaptive when
A.it exhibits cultural traits that are not shared with the majority of the group.
B.it threatens the core values of a culture that guarantee its integration.
C.cultural traits diminish the survival of particular individuals but not others.
D.cultural traits, patterns, and inventions disrupt the world economy, causing
international discontent.
E.cultural traits, patterns, and inventions threaten the group’s continued survival and
reproduction and thus its very existence.
What happens as one moves along the cultivation continuum?
A.Ceremonies and rituals become less formal.
B.More time for leisurely pursuits becomes available.
C.The use of land and labor intensifies.
D.There is a heavier reliance on swidden cultivation.
E.The use of communal cooking houses becomes more common.
A comparison between the Basseri and Qashqai, two Iranian nomadic tribes, illustrates
how as regulatory problems increase,
A.pastoralists are less likely to interact with other populations in the same space and
time.
B.rules regarding crime and punishment become more severe.
C.political hierarchies become more complex.
D.age sets begin to disintegrate.
E.silence becomes the best strategy for avoiding conflict.
Which of the following was studied by Sapir and Whorf?
A.the interaction of thought and surface structure
B.the influence of language on thought
C.the influence of deep structure on surface structure
D.the influence of deep structure on semantic domains
E.the influence of culture on language
The tasks and activities that a culture assigns to each sex are known as
A.gender stereotypes.
B.the prestige coefficient.
C.sexual ascribed status.
D.gender roles.
E.sex roles.
Which of the following statements about individual artists in non-Western societies is
true?
A.They tend to be iconoclastic and antisocial.
B.They are more likely to be part of the cultural mainstream than Western artists,
because social approval and acceptance is more important in non-Western societies.
C.They are all trained in formal, state-controlled schools for the arts.
D.They are nonexistent.
E.They are just copying Western art forms.
Unlike indigenous peoples, the term ________ highlights the prominence that the
exclusion of strangers has assumed in day-to-day politics worldwide and has been
claimed by majority groups in Europe.
A.indigenous people
B.autochthon
C.mestizo
D.Euroindio
E.freedom fighter
Transgender is a social category that
A.includes people whose gender identity has no apparent biological roots.
B.always contrasts biologically with “ordinary” males and females.
C.consists of only intersex people.
D.is entirely biologically constructed.
E.has no validity within the social sciences.
The Bari of Venezuela recognize multiple fathers, even though biologically there can be
only one actual genitor. This example shows
A.that women have a better understanding of biological processes than do men.
B.that like race and gender, kinship is culturally constructed.
C.cultures’ explanations for biological processes vary because the access and quality of
educational systems vary as well.
D.how, as in the United States, having more than one father is detrimental to a child’s
development and adjustment in society.
E.that multiple (partible) paternity is a common and beneficial biological fact.
Which of the following best defines polygyny?
A.the type of marriage in which there is more than one husband
B.the custom whereby a wife marries the brother of her dead husband
C.the type of marriage involving only two spouses
D.the custom whereby a widower marries the sister of his dead wife
E.the type of marriage in which there is more than one wife