According to David Gilmore, similar ideas of manhood are almost a universal aspect of
male behavior because:
a. Those who possess it are likely to be more successful in the search for mates.
b. Those who possess it are likely to be more economically successful.
c. It helps to assure that men fill their roles as procreators, protectors, and providers.
d. The need to establish hierarchy is a fundamental aspect of all human societies.
e. Women universally harass men who do not demonstrate machismo.
Which of the following is a recent anthropological interest in art?
a. How native arts have become global commodities.
b. How native art is produced and used within its own society.
c. The place of the native artist in society.
d. How Western art is becoming increasingly commercialized.
e. How Western artists are including more pop art to meet generational demands.
How has anthropological fieldwork in non-Western areas most changed since the
mid-1900s?
a. Today, anthropologists work among people who are very likely to read their works
and comment on them.
b. Today, anthropologists work primarily in colonial areas, where the native population
benefits from scientific study.
c. Today, anthropologists no longer seek permission to do fieldwork in isolated
geographical areas.
d. Today, anthropologists serve in local governments and can return favors to
populations who participate in their research.
e. Today, anthropologists no longer do long-term fieldwork as they did years ago.
E. B. Tylor argued that anthropology was a “reformer’s science.” By this he meant that:
a. Anthropologists had a duty to reform their own practices.
b. The purpose of anthropology was ultimately to create a better world.
c. Anthropologists should fight against bureaucratic corruption.
d. Anthropologists should focus their attention on enforcing codes of inductive
reasoning in science.
e. Anthropologists should always support the notion that all cultures are equally worthy
of respect.
Land in horticultural societies is:
a. Owned by individuals.
b. Owned by chiefs or headmen.
c. Owned by men but worked by women.
d. Communally owned by kin groups.
e. Not owned by anyone.
Which of the following is most essential in pastoralist societies?
a. Rights of ownership of land.
b. Rights of access to land.
c. The ability to sell land.
d. The ability to acquire land through inheritance.
e. The ability to transfer rights of land ownership as part of a marriage contract.
As culture traits move from one society to another:
a. Their meanings tend to remain unchanged.
b. They tend to lose their meanings.
c. Their meanings tend to change.
d. They lose their logical integration into culture.
e. They tend to become less and less important to the society in which they originated.
Evidence of artistic expression:
a. Was first found in the early 18th century.
b. Was first discovered only in the form of cave paintings.
c. Was found at the dawn of the modern human species.
d. Was first found 400,000 years ago.
e. Was found for the first time with the emergence of state societies.
Which of the following correctly defines “bride service”?
a. A ritual done in many cultures in which a man pledges his daughter to the son of a
friend.
b. Payments made by the family of the bride to the family of the groom.
c. Payments made to cover the cost of rituals associated with marriage.
d. Labor performed by the groom for the family of the bride.
e. Gifts given to a newly married couple, particularly gifts associated with preparing
and serving food.
Boas insisted that anthropologists must value a culture on its own terms. This idea is
called:
a. Logical positivism.
b. Postmodernism.
c. Phenomenology.
d. Cultural relativism.
e. Dualism.
The important contribution of Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa was:
a. To introduce American readers to Pacific Island lifestyles.
b. To support the notion that you could have a socially conservative society with
sexually permissive lifestyles.
c. To prove that homosexuality was one variety of normal sexual behavior.
d. To show that American ideas of adolescence were not universal.
e. To demonstrate the value of rites of passage in maintaining social solidarity.
Generalized reciprocity is the dominant form of exchange in:
a. Foraging societies.
b. Pastoral societies.
c. Chiefdoms.
d. Peasant agricultural societies.
e. State societies.
All of the following are reasons why language is being lost today in such great numbers
except:
a. Nation-states often try to suppress linguistic diversity.
b. Global trade favors more populous languages from more wealthy nations.
c. Linguistic minorities are increasingly working to teach their languages to their
children.
d. It is more profitable and advantageous to speak languages that are numerically
superior.
e. A vast majority of media is conducted in a few languages.
How has the role of the artist in society changed in the genre of world art?
a. Today, people are not interested in knowing the creator’s identity in order to purchase
the work.
b. Today, people seek to know the creator’s identity in order to value the piece of art.
c. Native artists are disappearing and this is an endangered field.
d. Native art no longer has commercial value, because it is seen primarily as a ritual
object.
e. Westerners and native artists cannot agree on how to define the role of the artists
today.
The trickster tales, such as the Br”er Rabbit stories of the American South, may be seen
as:
a. A thinly veiled protest against oppression and domination.
b. No more than foolish stories that have no real significance.
c. A product of a society with limited interest in verbal folklore.
d. The protest of the little worker against the modern bureaucracy.
e. Particularly characteristic of an egalitarian society.
Moots differ from courts among the Kpelle mainly in that:
a. Courts are a traditional part of Kpelle culture, whereas moots are a Western
innovation.
b. Courts are held in English, whereas moots are held in the local languages.
c. Courts give a lot of time to examining the complexities of a case, whereas moots are
quick, superficial affairs.
d. Courts aim at determining legal liability, whereas moots aim at reconciling disputing
parties.
e. Courts have dramatic, ritual, and psychological functions, whereas moots lack these
expressive aspects.
Extremely difficult working conditions in the meat packing industry:
a. Have only occurred since the 1960s.
b. Have improved dramatically now that most of the process is automated.
c. Have been “normal” since the 19th century.
d. Are a much greater problem for female workers than male workers.
e. Have almost disappeared as the result of the unionization of the industry.
An important change in the Indian caste system provoked by globalization is:
a. The social acceptance of Dalits.
b. The emergence of non-caste related occupations.
c. A widening cultural gap between the upper and lower castes.
d. The conversion of higher castes to Christianity.
e. The westernization of lower caste lifestyles.
The Chinese Bronze incident highlights a persistent controversy over:
a. British rights in China.
b. Racism.
c. Foreign affairs.
d. What constitutes art.
e. Ownership of historical objects.
Corporate descent groups tend to exist in societies with:
a. Industrial economic systems.
b. Unilineal descent.
c. Kindreds.
d. High geographic mobility.
e. A complex social stratification system.
Despite the many difficulties they face, dagongmai continue to work in factories
because:
a. They rarely have any other choices.
b. Their parents or husbands demand that they do so.
c. The life of a dagongmai is often better than it would be if the person had remained in
their village.
d. They usually have large debts that they must pay off.
e. They believe that such work is their best way of finding a mate.
An important way in which the Asante state controlled social mobility was in its:
a. Democratic election of the Asantehene.
b. Equitable tax structure which took from the rich and gave to the poor.
c. Policy of land reform.
d. Institution of public education in which children of all classes attended the same
schools.
e. Control over the awarding of ceremonial titles and insignia.
The earliest human food-getting strategy was:
a. Horticulture.
b. Industrialism.
c. Foraging.
d. Pastoralism.
e. Fishing.
The Inuit do not have a word for art. This reveals that:
a. The Inuit have little artistic ability.
b. In a harsh environment, the practice of art is a luxury not easily indulged in.
c. The contemporary arts of the Inuit were introduced by Canadians as a way for Inuit
to earn a living.
d. The Inuit language is impoverished because it lacks a word for art.
e. Inuit art is traditionally embedded in making objects for other purposes.
The pace of change over the past several centuries has been:
a. Enormous, with innovation occurring at quicker and quicker rates.
b. Constant, with innovation occurring at a steady rate.
c. Static, with little innovation occurring
d. Sporadic, with intermittent occurrences of innovation.
e. There are no reliable statistics to gauge such an abstract idea.
An important source of status for women in Nukumanu was:
a. Drinking kareve.
b. Controlling swamp taro lands.
c. Weaving.
d. Fishing.
e. Wage labor.
In general, the attitude of the Brazilian government toward race has been:
a. To pursue a “separate but equal” policy.
b. To provide development budgets for each race proportionate to each race’s
percentage of the total population.
c. To make sure each race receives proportional representation in the legislature.
d. To defuse racial tensions by providing large, publically financed celebrations.
e. To deny that race is a social problem in Brazil.
In addition to milk and meat products derived from their herds of camels, sheep, and
goats, the Yarahmadzai do all of the following except:
a. Gather dates.
b. Trade with agriculturalists.
c. Work for cash in nearby towns.
d. Cultivate grain.
e. Raise chickens.
Research on the degree to which people within a single culture share knowledge has
shown that:
a. Within a single culture, most people agree on most things most of the time.
b. Large, hierarchical cultures have much disagreement, but small cultures have little.
c. Small cultures have much disagreement, but large, hierarchical cultures have little.
d. Cultures show increasing amounts of disagreement after they reach their culture
climax.
e. Substantial amounts of disagreement are present in all cultures.
Which of the following statements about chiefs is most correct?
a. Chiefs only exist in band-level societies.
b. Chiefs’ roles are mainly symbolic and have little economic or political importance.
c. Much of a chief’s power is based on his ability to redistribute goods and services.
d. Chiefs are most important during times of war and have little to do in times of peace.
e. Chiefs did not exist anywhere before contact with the West; they were created by
Europeans to make political dominance easier.
Linguists view African American Vernacular English (AAVE) as:
a. Inferior to Standard Spoken American English (SSAE).
b. Neither superior nor inferior to SSAE.
c. More complicated but less abstract than SSAE.
d. Simpler than SSAE but more abstract.
e. Linguists do not recognize the existence of AAVE.
In her study of the favela of Olinda in Brazil, Mary Kenny found that social relations
among residents were characterized by:
a. Solidarity and mutual support.
b. General hostility and suspicion.
c. Strong bonds of friendship among women only.
d. Unusually strong ties between members of the same family.
e. A critical reliance on membership in one of three street gangs.
When a daughter marries in Minangkabau society, where does she go to live?
a. Into her family’s “big” house.
b. Into her husband’s family’s “big” house.
c. Into a new big house that she and her husband build.
d. Into her father’s mother’s house.
e. The newly married couple goes to live with her cross cousins.
Over the last century, among the Kipsigis of East Africa, bridewealth payments have:
a. Disappeared under the pressure of colonialism and modernity.
b. Increased, to cover the rising cost of living.
c. Remained the same in spite of changed economic conditions.
d. Decreased, as other economic opportunities compete for a man’s investments.
e. Been prohibited by law.
Modernization theory resulted in foreign advice and financial aid designed to alter the
structural, cultural, and psychological features of poor nations.
Religious change is likely to occur when societies are stable and people have the time to
think of new forms of religious worship.
One anthropological perspective understands male initiation as a type of fertility cult.
What is chronemics?
What is a blended family?
Theoretically, class systems are marked by having what type of statuses (or social
positions)?
In a unilineal kinship system, one is affiliated with family members on both the father’s
and mother’s side.
Art can provide many functions in society, especially for ritual meanings.
Because he understood Karen culture, anthropologist James Hamilton was able to make
many improvements to Karen house building.
The core vocabulary is a list of words which designate things, actions, and activities
likely to be named in all the world’s languages.
One advantage of cultural adaptation over biological adaptation is that culture can
usually change more rapidly than biology.
Anthropologists believe that there is no such thing as a cultural universal.
What did early 19th century evolutionists mean by the concept of societies as “living
fossils”?
How can linguists determine the age of a language?
Based on current statistics, what is the “typical” U.S. family? How is it composed?
At one time or another, much of the world came under direct European colonization.
How have social stratification, economics, and politics interacted in China over the past
century?
There are more terms for kin in American society than in North Indian society.
More than a century ago, E.B. Tylor called anthropology a “reformer’s science.” What
did he mean by this?
Under what conditions do we expect to find the emergence of syncretic religions?