Anthropology Quizzes

Which one of the following statement is false? a. Most societies use the same criteria to differentiate people into various levels in society. b. According to Jean and John Comaroff, the current "crisis of masculinity" is largely limited to highly industrialized societies. c. How the bodily processes of women are described in our own society is objective. d. All of the above statements are false.

d. All of the above statements are false.

The structural features of our economy and society that result in maintaining huge gaps in wealth and well-being are

debt, the devaluing of labor, and the new racism.

Differences in culture arise in part from the fact that

different groups of human beings create, share, and participate in different realities.

A study of Facebook communities and the ways people interact using social media as a "cyber" fieldsite is an example of

digital ethnography.

The ________ theory argues that poor people adopt certain practices that differ from those of middle-class or "mainstream" society in order to adapt and survive in difficult economic circumstances.

culture of poverty

Culture is an integrated and interrelated whole, which means that

if you alter one aspect of a culture, you can drastically affect and possibly even endanger the functioning of the whole.

Mark Cohen argues that the main reason for groups to adopt agriculture was:

increased population density, a direct result of the success of hunter-gather communities.

A Hindu person's caste status in India is:

inherited at birth.

"The slow, often unacknowledged shift in someone's manner of interpreting events as they become involved with a particular activity" is called:

interpretive drift.

The cockfight is important to Balinese men because it

is a story the Balinese tell themselves about themselves.

Mohammed always emphasizes that "time is money" and is very strict with his schedule. Mohammed comes from

low context culture

In her research on fraternity practices on American college campuses, Peggy Sanday uses the term "phallocentrism," which refers to the penis as a symbol of

masculine social power and dominance.

The increase in the number of people relative to the available land creates two problems:

more people than available land to feed them and need for greater societal organization.

A matrilineal society emphasizes kinship ties to an individual's:

mother.

Hunting/gathering societies may be described as

nomadic

In Mary Douglas's "grid-group" model the grid describes how much:

one's life is limited by externally imposed prescriptions.

At least two things have produced a growing inequality between the wealthy and the poor in America:

outsourcing and the systematic destruction of labor unions

One of the major flaws of sociologists and psychologists in understanding and preventing STDs is the assumption that

people are rational actors.

In Fat Talk, anthropologist Mimi Nichter found that 90 percent of adolescent white girls she surveyed were dissatisfied with their weight while African American girls felt that beauty was better defined by

personality

The practice of a woman having more than one husband is known as

polyandry.

In Northern Ireland, Catholics emphasize their decency and see themselves as the only true Irish. Meanwhile, Protestants take pride in their military triumphs and their loyalty to Great Britain. These self-images illustrate the concept of:

positive identity.

By examining the "Happy Meal" advertised by one fast-food chain, anthropologists can

provide insights into demographic and ecological patterns, industrial and agricultural history, health and gender roles.

People with "bilateral kinship" generally:

recognize their mother's and father's families as kin.

The Hutterites are strongly egalitarian but they:

regard women as inferior and subordinate.

In dealing with death, the Dani of New Guinea

require a close female relative of the deceased to cut off part of a finger.

"Frames" are mental structures we use to make sense of the world. Conservatives' frame prompts them to see the family as:

run by a strict father

The three stages that Lewis Henry Morgan believed human societies evolved through are

savagery, barbarism, and civilization.

HIV prevention which places premium and priority on rationality, informed decision-making, self-control, and sexual health ignores

sexual desire, sexual passion, and love. spontaneity, mutual surrender, and abandonment. (b and c)

Current ethnographies tend to be focused on:

specific situations, events, or individuals.

When a Big Man successfully makes moka, he acquires:

status and prestige.

In class we watched the gut-wrenching movie, It's a Girl. According to the movie gendercide refers to:

the systematic killing and abandonment of baby girls and the abortion of female fetuses.

Some anthropologists maintain that the behavior of people in poverty represent

their adaptations to their socioeconomic condition: no money and no jobs.

Cultural evolutionist Leslie White asserts that cultural development

varies directly with the efficiency of the tools employed.

In traditional Chinese society, a wife acquires full status in her husband's family:

when she produces a male child.

According to Clifford Geertz, people impose meaning on their actions and experiences because:

without these meanings the world would seem composed of chaotic actions.

When Michael Kearney got a skin infection after visiting and helping a similarly afflicted woman who attributed her illness to witchcraft, he:

wondered if he too had been the victim of witchcraft.

In Ju/wasi society, brideservice refers to the:

work a groom does for the bride's parents.

Because 18th century English textile factories required new forms of social control they were set up like:

workhouses and prisons.

When American 10- and11-year-olds were shown drawings of other children and asked to rank them, which group was consistently ranked lowest?

Fat children

Societies distinguish individuals from one another by using such criteria as

age, gender, kinship, ethnicity, and language..

Anthropological interview techniques:

are always the same from field project to field project.

Members of Holiness Churches in the U.S. handle poisonous snakes:

as a test of their faith.

The resettlement of the indigenous people of the Mackenzie Delta was a development debacle because

-The consultation and negotiation with the native people regarding the changes was unsuccessful. -No one attempted to integrate local knowledge into the planning process. -No one anticipated the unintended consequences of the changes.

Cultures are mostly divided into low contact and high contact cultures. Which one of the following affect how someone views physical contact?

-context -gender -geographical regions

An example of how a classroom's design serves to discipline would be

-the distribution of people in space. -clocks -the chairs.

According to James Woodburn, the Hadza people of Tanzania spend about how many hours a day obtaining food?

2 hours

What is the first step in doing ethnographic fieldwork?

Choosing a research question

"Secondary elaboration" describes which of the following?

Explaining away inconsistencies or contradictions in a set of beliefs.

Culture shock occurs exclusively among new anthropologists doing first fieldwork. (T/F)

False

Revitalization movements usually occur during which time periods?

In periods of social upheaval.

For female adolescents, what purpose does "fat talk" serve?

It enables girls to get support and affirmation from other girls. It enables girls to express solidarity. It allows girls to avoid the appearance of being satisfied with their appearance. (all of the above)

How is anthropology unique among other disciplines?

It is based on first-hand fieldwork.

The Japanese proverb "The nail that sticks up shall be hammered down" exemplifies

Japanese sociocentric culture

Why do rural Chinese men require male children?

Male children are required to maintain a man's lineage.

What form of inheritance is practiced when a man's property is divided equally among his children after he dies?

Partible

Which of the following societies was exterminated as a result of contact with Europeans?

Ona

The concept of selective perception describes which of the following?

People see only those things they expect, or those that confirm what they already believe.

Based on the Gini coefficient, if a country scored "0", what would it indicate?

Perfect income equality

American football best represents which American ideal?

Success as it is supposed to work.

Which one of the following is true about the Hadza of Tanzania?

The Hadza spend about 2 hours a day obtaining food.

What personal experience allowed Renato Rosaldo to better understand the behavior of the Philippine Ilongots?

The accidental death of his wife

In contrast to American soap operas, what is the common focus of Brazilian soap operas?

The family of orientation

The Gitksan of the Pacific Northwest believe what about personal names?

There are only a limited number of personal names. Each name is associated with spiritual powers, honors, and wealth. When someone dies, a competition ensues to claim the vacated name in the hope of acquiring the powers, honors, and wealth associated with it. (all of the above)

How can human differences and similarities best be treated to avoid both the ethnographic and relativistic fallacy?

Treating them as a text filled with symbols that need to be deciphered

Edward Tylor, perhaps the founder of modern anthropology, wrote in 1871 that religion and a belief in the supernatural developed through people's attempt to explain such basic phenomena as death and dreaming. (T/F)

True

In recent years, as a result of globalization and culture change, research methods in anthropology have changed. (T/F)

True

It is common for anthropologists to feel confused and disoriented when they first arrive at their field sites. (T/F)

True

Most societies observe an incest taboo prohibiting marriage between members of a nuclear family. (T/F)

True

The U.S. military has employed anthropologists to train officers. (T/F)

True

The gathering and interpretation of information based on intensive, firsthand study is called ethnography. (T/F)

True

Descent that establishes group membership through either the mother's or the father's line is

Unilineal descent

What do metaphors do?

Use language from one domain of experience to describe another domain.

What can we learn from the anthropologist Richard Scaglion's failed attempt to explain Newton's law of gravity to his Abelam friends in Papua New Guinea?

We might not actually understand much of what we take as scientific fact in our society.

According to James Carrier, what differentiates a possession from a commodity?

Whether it is associated in a personal way with a producer or a distributor.

The British East India Company gained control of the textile market in India through:

a combination of war, plunder, and competitive restrictions.

A totem is:

a compendium of religious teaching.

Debt is, in effect,

a regressive tax that redistributes money upward to the more wealthy and, consequently, maintains and increases economic inequality.

North American native groups who adopted the ghost dance sought:

a revival of a traditional way of life.

According to Philippe Bourgois, poverty and marginalization of the inner cities has resulted in an "inner-city street culture." This subculture is

a spontaneous set of rebellious practices.

Which one of the following is false? a. In a patrilineal kinship system, the female line is totally ignored. b. Most societies observe an incest taboo prohibiting marriage between members of a nuclear family. c. Rural Chinese society is organized in patrilineal extended households. d. In Trobriand society, men inherit property from their mother's brothers.

a. In a patrilineal kinship system, the female line is totally ignored.

Which of the following is true from a socio-centric perspective? a. Social situations, not individuals, possess qualities. b. Americans possess the most enduring qualities. c. Individuals vary in their possession of enduring qualities. d. People generally feel that their culture is superior to others.

a. Social situations, not individuals, possess qualities.

Which of the following is NOT communicated by the structure of the chess game? a. There is a rigid social hierarchy. b. 'Fair play' is a strictly American notion. c. As in war, the most strategic player wins. d. Rank and power are linked in the outwitting of an opponent.

b. 'Fair play' is a strictly American notion.

Which one of the following is false? a. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis suggests that the grammar of a language structures the culture of its speakers. b. Emile Durkheim argued that early humans imagined souls to be the essence of life. c. A totem is a compendium of religious teaching. d. The Kwakwaka'wakw believe they need to control hunger in their society in order to solve the problems of greed, conflict, and child rearing.

b. Emile Durkheim argued that early humans imagined souls to be the essence of life.

Which of these is an example of an exogamous marriage? a. Marriage between family members. b. Marriage outside of one's religious faith. c. Marriage between classmates. d. Marriage with someone from another state.

b. Marriage outside of one's religious faith.

Most American families are based on________

bilateral kin ties.

The berdache or nadle among Native Americans are:

biological males who adopt many female roles, creating a third gender.

In his research, Richard Lee found that all of the following describe the Ju/Wasi diet EXCEPT: a. It consisted of 2,300 calories daily on average. b. It was vegetable based, although with a surprising amount of meat. c. It lacked vitamin C and Iron. d. It was low in carbohydrates.

c. It lacked vitamin C and Iron.

Swidden agriculture is

clearing forests by burning trees and brush and planting crops among the ashes.

Which one of the following is true? a. The amount of energy required to produce sufficient food supplies tends to increase with advances in agricultural technology. b. The "putting out" system in the English textile industry referred to weavers working at home. c. Settled agriculture developed as a necessary response to an increased population, not because it was widely perceived as a better way of life. d. All of the above.

d. All of the above.

Which one of the following is not a rite of passage? a. college graduation b. Christening c. Circumcision d. None of the above.

d. None of the above.

Metaphors through which the Kwakwaka'wakw understand and describe their life come from:

eating

The best way to describe the lack of inequality and class among hunter-gatherers is to say they are:

egalitarian

The dominant view of the self in American society is

egocentric

When researchers use things such as photographs in order to prompt people to speak with them about a particular topic, these are called

eliciting devices.

Researchers who view the actions of other people simply in terms of the degree to which they correspond to their own notions of the ways people should behave are:

ethnocentric

In-depth descriptive studies of specific cultures are called

ethnographies

When anthropologists go to the places that they study in order to experience the culture firsthand, it is called

fieldwork

When an individual is classified as "high grid/high group":

he or she is a "hierarchist."

Mahatma Gandhi referred to individuals as drops in the ocean that cannot survive without the ocean. This perspective is considered:

holistic.

To understand the practice of virginity testing in Turkey, one must first understand

how Turkish villagers understand the reproductive process.