Anthropology Exam 3 Study Guide

Most of the evidence given for the hypothesis that sedentary people have larger populations than nomadic people comes from a study of the __________.

!Kung

By about __________ B.C., archaeologists had found most of the major characteristics of civilizations.

3500

Cities first appeared in the Near East about __________.

3500 B.C.

It is estimated that __________ percent of the world's languages are endangered.

50 to 90

Why do some linguists argue that the evidence for an innate grammar is weak?

Across cultures, children understand individual words but do not understand grammar rules until formally taught them in school.

Why did cities and states emerge in Mesoamerica later than in the Near East?

Agriculture started later in the New World than in the Old World.

Which of the following statements is true regarding ethics across cultures?

All cultures have ethical standards, but what they emphasize varies

Which is true of the core vocabularies of languages?

All languages have core vocabularies of about the same size.

Which important site was an adobe town set high in the mountains of southern Turkey?

Catal Hüyük

How do domesticated plants get to be different from their wild varieties?

Certain variations are artificially selected through the harvesting and planting process.

Why did North American agriculturalists switch to a dependence on corn?

Corn is easier to harvest and store than many other crops.

What does the concept of cultural integration mean?

Cultural elements are a fairly eclectic assortment.

__________ called the period from about 5000 B.C. to 3500 B.C. the formative era in southern Iraq.

Elman Service

Why is hair color not considered a cultural trait?

Hair color is neither learned nor shared throughout the culture.

How does material culture differ from the broader concept of culture?

It is only present in societies with a market economy.

What was unusual about the Harappan civilization, as compared to other early states?

It lacked a centralized government.

Where might you find a Neolithic Natufian settlement?

Jordan

Why are many anthropologists interested in the reasons ancient civilizations collapsed?

Knowing about the decline of states in the past may help us preserve our own.

The earliest city-state in Mesoamerica was probably __________.

Monte Albán

Which of the following illustrates an ideal cultural trait in U.S. society that does not correspond to practical reality?

People of all classes and races are equal before the law.

Which statement is true of syntax?

Speakers of a language are usually not consciously aware of the rules of syntax.

Which of these modern nations falls within what archaeologists call the Fertile Crescent?

Syria

How does overdependence on a few staple foods increase the risk of famine?

The fewer the staple crops, the greater the danger to the food supply posed by crop failure.

Why might a superior innovation not be adopted?

The habits of the old system are more important than finding something that works better.

Why does health often suffer in cities?

The high population allows infectious diseases to flourish.

Many scientists believe that the loss of the megafauna at the end of the Pleistocene was due to overhunting. What factor gives reason to question this hypothesis?

The population of humans at the time was far too low to have had such an effect on mammal populations.

What does it mean to say that a word or sound is arbitrary?

The word's meaning is the opposite of what it sounds like.

Why is it so difficult to pinpoint the emergence of the earliest languages?

There are clear structural differences in the brains of people who speak and people who don't, but we have no fossilized evidence of brain structure.

What evidence at Ali Kosh indicates that the people depended mostly on wild plants and animals for their food?

There is no evidence of animal husbandry at this site.

How did the Archaic people of Highland Mesoamerica differ socially from the Natufians?

There is no evidence of social differences in Highland Mesoamerica.

What might explain the fact that agriculture spread more quickly in the Old World than in the New World?

There was less contact between cultures in the New World, which means less trade and diffusion of ideas.

Catal Hüyük was set in a remote area with few natural resources. How did the people cope with this challenge?

They lived a simple existence using just the bare necessities.

How did early evolutionists tend to think of Western cultures?

They viewed Western cultures as being at the most progressive stage of evolution

How do we know that the city of Teotihuacán in Mesoamerica was very influential at its peak?

Though very small, the city provided a great deal of resources for its people.

Based on linguistic and archaeological research, the speakers of proto-Indo-European are believed to have lived around modern-day __________.

Ukraine

What are the ultimate sources of all cultural change?

Which of the following is a basic pattern of diffusion?

__________ theorized that long-distance trade led to the state.

Wright and Johnson

Which of these archaeological finds would suggest domestication of animal species?

a disproportionate amount of one species over another

The adoption and later elimination of the sepaade tradition among the Rendille is an example of __________.

a maladaptive custom

What is the most likely factor involved in the decreased birth interval seen in sedentary !Kung communities, as compared to more nomadic groups?

a shift away from the post-partum sex taboo seen in more nomadic groups

Which of these is an example of a composite tool?

a sickle made with microliths

Which of these societies would fit the anthropological definition of a chiefdom?

a society in which a political official has authority over several communities

Children learn spoken language at __________.

about the same age in all cultures

The strong form of cultural relativism suggests that __________.

all patterns of culture are equally valid

What is one way that states change the lifestyles of people?

allowing for larger populations

Which of these tools would most likely be made from obsidian?

atlatl

Individuals have __________, but groups share __________.

behavior; culture

The __________ site of Guila Naquitz had evidence of casual plant domestication.

cave

Which of the following behaviors would most likely be subject to direct cultural constraints in American society?

choosing to wear nothing

Animal systems, such as sound or odor, represent __________ but not __________.

communication; language

Historical linguists are interested in __________.

comparing certain languages to determine if they were derived from a common ancestral language

Which cultural development would you expect to see only after states appear?

complex hunting

The ideal cultural traits of a society __________.

consist of the cultural patterns that most people always exhibit

When a member of a group diverges from acceptable standards, or norms, of social behavior, he/she may be ridiculed, arrested, or otherwise pressured into conformity through what Emile Durkheim referred to as __________.

cultural constraints

The tendency to judge other cultures without trying to grasp the reasons behind their customs is what anthropologists refer to as __________.

cultural relativism

The first form of writing found in Sumer and dating to around 3000 B.C. is known as __________.

cuneiform

Which of these is a consequence of the rise of food production?

declining health

At present, archaeologists define the Neolithic in terms of the presence of __________.

domesticated plants and animals

The earliest Neolithic societies were __________.

egalitarian

An adaptive custom is one that __________.

enhances survival and reproduction

A major reason for the decline of states appears to be __________.

environmental degradation

Which important tenet of anthropology was first championed by Franz Boas to challenge the attitude that Western culture was inherently superior to others?

ethnocentrism

Often, in the aftermath of violent events such as depopulation, relocation, enslavement, and genocide by dominant powers, deprived peoples have created new cultures in a process called __________.

ethnogenesis

Which of the following types of nonverbal communication appears to be culturally universal?

facial expressions

Based on the evidence explaining the decline of earlier states, what factor is the most pressing consideration for today's civilizations?

food production

What religious features would you expect to see in a state society?

full-time religious specialists

What evidence exists to show that African preagricultural settlements were reliant on water resources for food?

harpoons in the archaeological record and sites along the shores of rivers and lakes

What are the key characteristics required to classify a society as a state?

hierarchical and centralized decision making affecting a substantial population

Research has shown that English people from higher-class backgrounds tend to have more __________ speech, conforming more to what is considered standard English.

homogeneous

Toward the end of the Upper Paleolithic period, people got most of their food from __________.

hunting

How did the origins of food production most likely occur?

independently around the world over a few thousand years

Which of the following is a major source of new culture?

individual variation

In Ali Kosh in southwestern Iran after about 5500 B.C., __________ were two important innovations.

irrigation and the use of domesticated cattle

Although gorillas and chimpanzees appear to have the capacity for symbolic communication, human language is a unique communication system because __________.

its spoken and symbolic nature permits an infinite number of combinations of meaning

Anthropologists, as well as other social scientists, feel that culture is __________.

learned and shared

A dictionary most closely approximates a language's __________.

lexicon

While there are many negative consequences to globalization, the United Nations has suggested an improvement in __________.

literacy rates

What physical feature would be adaptive by allowing a hunter to throw a spear further and with more force?

longer limbs

Among archaic peoples of Mesoamerica, __________ were located near seasonally abundant resources.

macrobands

The wild grass teosinte led to today's domesticated __________.

maize

Pauses, shrugs, vocal communication, and facial expressions all contribute to __________.

metalanguage

The threats of famine and disease are __________ intensive agriculture.

more likely with

At birth, an infant can distinguish __________.

only the difference between male and female vocal registers

What do linguists mean when they refer to grammar?

prescriptive rules that people are supposed to follow when speaking

Which of the following American norms might be seen as immoral or inferior by someone from another culture?

putting a baby to sleep in its own room

If a language has a basic color term for "yellow" it is most likely also to have a color term for __________.

red

Which of the following is an example of forced acculturation?

schools for Native American children

The population of the world seems to have increased dramatically as a result of people __________.

settling down

From the time agriculture developed to about 6000 B.C., people in the Near East lived in __________.

small villages

In addition to geographical separation, how do different dialects become completely different languages?

social restrictions preventing regular communication between the two groups

Variations in individual behavior are confined within __________ acceptable limits.

socially

A __________ is a group of people who occupy a particular territory and speak a common language. A) culture

society

What is a protolanguage?

spoken reconstructed language from which modern languages derived

Sequoya's idea to create a writing system for the Cherokee, after encountering written English, is an example of __________.

stimulus diffusion

Archaeologists can determine whether status was conferred at birth or later in life by __________.

studying children's burials

The fact that monkeys and apes can learn new behaviors from each other __________.

suggests that they have a culture

Because a word or phrase can represent what it stands for, whether or not that thing is present, we say that language is __________.

symbolic

The Uruk period refers to pre-state developments in __________.

the Near East

Archaeologists can determine if an ancient society had different socioeconomic classes of people by looking at __________.

the differences in house size and furnishing

The fact that there are thousands of languages tells us that language is __________.

the most difficult aspect of cultural anthropology

Which of the following groups is most likely to be an early adopter of innovation?

the very poor

How does the early speech pattern of children compare to creole languages?

Creole languages have a simple but consistent grammar, but children's early speech errors have no particular pattern.

According to Ralph Linton, what is the difference between discovery and invention?

Discovery is ideological, and invention is technological.

Where would you go to participate in a dig at the site of the ancient state of Axum?

Ethiopia

Most archaeologists believe that the __________ was one of the earliest centers of plant and animal domestication

Fertile Crescent

The formative period in Mesoamerica was much longer than the period in Iraq.

In both regions, developments in irrigation were crucial for more permanent settlements.

The Harappan civilization was located in the __________ Valley.

Indus

__________ is often given as a reason for the decline of the Roman Empire.

Overextension

How do cities relate to a society's agricultural production?

Successful cities have developed alongside all known types of subsistence economies

Some scholars argue that cultural relativists are acting hypocritically by __________.

assuming that all cultures have similar ethical systems

To what language family does English belong?

language affects how individuals in a society perceive and conceive reality

Archaeologists speak of domestication only when there is evidence that plants and animals show a __________ wild plants and animals.

modification from

Emile Durkheim stressed that culture is something __________ us exerting a strong __________ power on us.

outside; coercive

By what age can you expect your little sister to understand the difference between "me eat cookie" and "cookie eat me"?

18 to 24 months

How many mutually unintelligible languages have been identified?

4,000 to 5,000

The earliest writing systems are about __________ years old.

6,000

The first clear indication of a changeover to food production took place in the Near East about __________ B.C.

8000

Which of these is an example of a bound morpheme?

I

The preagricultural developments in Southeast Asia are poorly known at this point, but are most likely in response to environmental changes. What changes were occurring in the climate at this time?

a warming trend and higher sea levels

The date of domestication in mainland Southeast Asia appears to be __________.

comparable to that of Mesoamerica

What development in the Neolithic society allowed for woven textile clothing?

domestication of sheep

Which of the following strongly predicts an immigrant group's likelihood of retaining their native language into the third generation?

living in tightly knit communities

In general, the borrowing of __________ from another language is much more common than the borrowing of __________.

words; grammar

Why does the study of ape language capabilities advance the understanding of human language?

Apes have at least some of the capabilities of language, which helps us better understand the evolution of human language.

Which civilization is possibly the first officially Christian state in the world?

Axum

How do cuneiform and hieroglyphics differ?

Cuneiform was used by everyday people, whereas hieroglyphics were used by priests.

Which of the following is an example of consistency of cultural traits?

English drive on the left side of the road, so they also have their steering wheels on the right side of the car.

How did the process of domestication differ between Mesoamerica and the Fertile Crescent?

In the Fertile Crescent, people shifted completely from gathering wild foods to depending on domesticated foods within only a few decades.

Why can we not use the languages of nonliterate societies to learn about the origins of language?

Languages of nonliterate societies change too quickly to be any use for study.

Which of the following describes the form of culture change known as diffusion?

Many of the foods we eat, such as pasta and chicken, were introduced to us through contact with different cultures around the world.

Which of these statements is true of global literacy?

Only recently has universal literacy become a goal for most countries.

Because of its location in a neutral, nonproductive region, the city of Monte Albán is most like the modern capital city of __________.

Paris

What is the major cause of the disappearance of native languages?

The languages are no longer being taught to children.

What do anthropologists mean when they say that city-states arose "independently" in various regions of the world?

The states emerged without colonization or conquest from other states.

Mesoamerican farmers are often credited for the clever idea of growing maize, beans, and squash together, because the plants complement each others' nutritional needs. How would the Mesoamerican farmers likely come up with this idea?

These are the only plants that can be grown in the same field successfully, and it saves space.

How do Wright and Johnson evaluate whether a society had the three levels of political administration they require to be considered a state?

They consider the relative health of the populace.

Children commonly pluralize words incorrectly, such as "mans," "deers," and "mouses." What does this suggest about the grasp of linguistic rules?

They must learn each word as an individual unit of vocabulary, and cannot apply general rules.

Which modern type of home best approximates the homes in the city of Teotihuacán?

a mobile home

Which society would probably have the fewest basic color terms?

a society whose people have darker eyes

The conscious or unconscious pressure for cultural __________ will often produce cultural change.

consistency

Which of these terms can be applied to all known states?

egalitarian

Ethnocentrism both hinders our understanding of other peoples' cultures and __________.

ensures that our culture will never change

In the state, many people are relieved of the need for __________.

food production

Which of the following is part of the state's infrastructure?

irrigation systems

The most powerful transmitter of culture is probably __________.

language

In North America, a settlement with over 100 earthen mounds developed near present-day St. Louis. This settlement represented a __________.

large and powerful chiefdom

The increased use of stationary food sources during the Epipaleolithic explains in part why people in the Near East began to __________.

lead more sedentary lives

Which of the following findings would best support the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?

multilingual individuals have trouble code-switching in some situations

In what areas of American culture have the most drastic changes of cultural norms taken place in the last generation?

sex and marriage

As economic specialization developed in Sumer, __________ became more elaborate.

social stratification

Any system of communication consists of publicly accepted __________ by which individuals try to share private experiences.

symbols

Which civilization is believed to have collapsed due to environmental degradation?

the Egyptians

What is the conceptual opposite of ethnocentrism?

the glorification of other cultures

__________ has proposed a theory of state origin stressing population growth, circumscription, and war.

Robert Carneiro

What is the Binford-Flannery model for the development of food production?

Food production creates adequate nutrition with less work than hunting and gathering.

Which region's development contradicts the theory that irrigation is one of the driving forces of the development of early states?

Mesoamerica

Where would you expect to find the earliest examples of states in the archaeological record?

Mesopotamia

How did a shift to a more sedentary lifestyle and reliance on grains affect the Natufians' health?

They suffered nutritional deficiency, as shown by their teeth.

The process of cultural change known as __________ describes a situation in which a subordinate society adopts cultural traits or technologies through contact with a more powerful society, either through force or due to perceived economic or social advantages.

acculturation

Based on their site of domestication, where do you expect the wild ancestors of today's sheep and goats to have lived?

the Near East

A study comparing Japanese and American facial expressions found that __________.

the two had similar expressions in private, but the Japanese participants tried to mask their feelings in front of authority figures