Cultural Anthropology Exam 2
What aspect of Julian Steward and Sidney Mintz's work introduced a new approach to ethnography?
They engaged in collaborative, multi-sited research as their team studied the effects of colonialism in Puerto Rico.
E. E. Evans-Pritchard's approach to anthropology has been criticized for being ahistorical. What was one of the major shortcomings of his work?
He ignored the fact that the communities he studied were part of a larger preexisting colonial system.
Select the research question that best fits Nancy Scheper-Hughes's fieldwork in Alto do Cruzeiro.
How can the international community reduce poverty in Brazil?
One of the changes in ethnographic work that has occurred in the twenty-first century has to do with the degree to which local voices are considered. How has this changed?
The inclusion of local voices has increased.
Kwan, an exchange student, was very happy with his nice, comfortable room so he smiled and made a circle with his index finger and thumb, with his other fingers sticking out. His host mother was so upset that she called the school principal to complain. How would a linguist explain what went wrong?
The meaning of gestures is not universal.
What did anthropologist Laura Bohannan discover in her attempt to translate a classic text from English literature into Tiv?
The meaning of the story became lost, as the original meanings of the English words could not be easily translated.
How would you describe the problems pertaining to the vulnerability of research subjects involved in a study of Facebook groups?
The participants would not have anonymity.
You are conducting research among a group of migrant farmworkers in southern Florida and you realize that some of them are undocumented. You know that you are able to protect their identities, even if you publish your findings widely, because of your commitment to what ethical principle?
anonymity
Archaeology, the study of cultures in the human past, focuses on
any human material remains.
Cultural anthropologists often spend a great deal of time in the communities in which they conduct research, asking questions as people work, celebrate, dance, or play games. What is the term used for this process?
participant observation
What idea introduced by Bronislaw Malinowski is fundamental to all research conducted by contemporary cultural anthropologists?
participant observation
What term do anthropologists use to refer to the smallest units of sounds that can make a critical difference in meaning within a language, but do not have any meaning on their own?
phonemes
The words "day" and "pay" might sound like the same word to a nonnative speaker of English, but they have very different meanings. A linguist would identify the d and p sounds as different
phonemes.
What field of anthropology studies monkeys and apes, but not human beings?
primatology
Attempts to document Native American cultures that anthropologists feared would disappear with the westward expansion of settlers are called salvage ethnography. This method involves
rapidly gathering available material and key interviews.
A group of people who come to share certain norms of language use through living and communicating together is called a
speech community.
In his research conducted in the Trobriand Islands, Bronislaw Malinowski employed an early form of what type of anthropological theory?
structural functionalism
In many European and Latin American cultures, people commonly greet one another with a kiss on the cheek. In the United States, people may be more likely to greet one another with a hug or a handshake. An anthropologist would call these ________ actions in that they communicate meaning in context.
symbolic
Which of the following is one of the four elements of culture that an anthropologist considers when attempting to understand its complex workings?
symbols
What did Bronislaw Malinowski specifically encourage fellow anthropologists to do in his guidelines?
take time to learn the local language of the people being studied
What do many scientists and experts call our current historical era, which is defined by the ways in which human activity is permanently reshaping our planet?
the Anthropocene
The idea that different languages shape different ways of thinking and acting is called
the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.
Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) described two aspects of power. One was material power. How did Gramsci describe the other aspect of power?
the ability to create consent and agreement
What concept, inspired by the work of Charles Darwin, proposes that the diversity of human cultures represent different stages of development, from simple to complex?
unilineal cultural evolution
Henry Lewis Morgan and Edward Burnett Tylor, two early anthropologists, had notably different approaches to anthropological research. In conducting his research, Tylor
was able to work from his favorite armchair.
After hearing Laura Bohannan attempt to translate Hamlet, the Tiv elders concluded that the cause of the characters' problems was
witchcraft.
The concept of culture is a very recent idea and was developed by
Edward Burnett Tylor's work in England.
Which subfield of anthropology traces the history of human evolution in fossils?
paleoanthropology
What does the presence of the McDo rice burger on the McDonald's menu in the Philippines suggest?
Global encounters can be modified to reflect local culture.
What did Lewis Henry Morgan do that was an exception in the field of anthropology at that time?
He conducted fieldwork in order to become an expert on Native Americans.
Chinese, which is spoken by about 1.3 billion people, is the most common navtive language in the world. Why do many Chinese students go to English-speaking countries to learn English?
English is a prestige language worldwide and is helpful in education and technology.
Around what percentage of emotional information is communicated through kinesics and paralanguage?
90
Which of the following is an example of enculturation as a formal process?
Children are required by their schools to sit at desks and raise hands to speak.
Which of the following describes how anthropologists describe the primary way humans adapt to and manipulate their physical and social environments, in light of the human evolutionary past?
Cultural adaptation has mostly replaced genetic adaptation.
Although culture takes many forms worldwide, we can recognize shared characteristics of culture as a concept. Which of the following statements is true of culture?
Culture is a system.
An anthropologist publishes a book about their fieldwork in Morocco. The anthropologist interviewed many people in the field and publishes much of those raw interviews as part of the text in each chapter. Why is this a polyvocal approach?
It includes many voices from the people interviewed.
What does Benjamin Whorf's research with the Hopi, a Native American group in the southwestern United States, suggest about language?
Language shapes different ways of thinking.
Holden and Buddy both sell luxury cars. Holden, who exchanges witty banter with clients with a polished accent and expansive vocabulary, sells many cars. But Buddy's working-class jokes and body language—which were effective when he worked at a used-car dealership—seem to scare off potential clients. What does this illustrate about linguistic cultural capital?
Language skills are a form of cultural capital that can be converted into monetary gain.
What is happening to human language diversity worldwide?
Languages are being lost at the rate of one every ten days.
________ was an early anthropologist who sought to organize vast quantities of data about the diversity of world cultures that were being accumulated through colonial and missionary enterprises of the nineteenth century.
Lewis Henry Morgan
A common stereotype in the United States suggests that women never seem to stop talking. What research finding about men seems to contradict this stereotype?
Men use linguistic strategies to maintain conversational dominance and speak more than women.
What is the significant difference between quantitative and qualitative data?
Qualitative data cannot be counted.
Margaret Mead was both controversial and renowned for her work. Which of the following statements best describes that work?
She examined sexuality and gender in Samoa.
Clifford Geertz (1926-2006) argued that every cultural action is more than the action itself. It also has deeper meaning, subject to interpretation. What key idea in anthropology did this important theoretical idea help promote?
Symbols are a crucial means of understanding other cultures.
Which of the following industries has the primary goal of creating a desire for goods and services?
advertising
Which concept refers to anthropology's commitment to looking at the full scope of human diversity and experience, including the cultural, biological, historical, and linguistic?
holism
Current estimates suggest that children in the United States view almost 40,000 commercials a year. This advertising helps us learn how to do what?
be successful in our roles as consumers
Anthropology looks at the complete diversity of human life across space and time. This kind of study requires a(n)
belief that other cultures are normal.
What type of anthropologist studies how humans have adapted to their environments over time?
biological anthropologist
Ten-year-old Davi is getting dressed to go to a wedding at a synagogue. When his parents see that he's wearing jeans and a T-shirt, they tell him that he needs to wear a suit instead. What are Davi's parents teaching him?
norms
In 2009, newly elected president Barack Obama visited a famous eatery in Washington, DC, and, after paying his tab, he was asked by the cashier if he wanted his change. The president replied, "Nah, we straight." Which of the following did the president do?
code-switched
What changed and expanded in the late twentieth century that has allowed anthropologists to continue research even after leaving the field?
communications
Ethnology is the process of ________ and can be used to examine activities, trends, and patterns of power across cultures.
comparison
What is one of the typical first steps taken during the planning stages of a fieldwork project?
conducting a literature review
There is a huge inflow of refugees from the wars in the Middle East to parts of Europe and Scandinavia. What kind of anthropologist would probably offer the most useful input to the politicians making decisions about resettlement programs?
cultural anthropologist
What type of anthropologists explore any and all aspects of living human culture—from war and violence to love, sexuality, and child rearing—and look at the meanings that people from all over the world place on these things?
cultural anthropologists
Participant observation as a research strategy is an essential part of which subfield of anthropology?
cultural anthropology
When companies move their production facilities around the world to take advantage of cheaper labor and lower taxes, what do anthropologists call this?
offshoring
Anthropologists have uncovered evidence of vast trade networks throughout the entire continent of North America that long predate the arrival of Europeans. The exchange of cultural traits that can occur through such material exchanges is called
diffusion.
Increased migration has led anthropologists to conduct ethnographic research in new ways, such as collecting data in two or more locations. What type of ethnography is this?
multi-sited
During the 1960s and 1970s, how was anthropology's role in colonialism viewed, and why?
negatively—for providing information to the military and depicting colonial subjects as unable to govern themselves
Franz Boas (1858-1942) rejected unilineal cultural evolution, instead suggesting that different cultures arise as the result of very different causes, and will vary widely. What do we call his approach?
historical particularism
Historically, European languages initially spread throughout the world and became globally dominant as a result of what?
early colonial expansion
In the past, anthropology has been criticized for failing to properly include the communities being studied in the research process. What practice do anthropologists today frequently use as a response to those critiques?
elements of polyvocality
Sitting in your anthropology class helps you learn about culture through formal instruction. You can also learn about culture informally through interactions with family, friends, and the media. What is this process called?
enculturation
What is one field you may explore if you want to study the complex relationship between culture and biology?
epigenetics
You are an anthropologist investigating the ways that malnutrition in pregnant women can affect the genetic development of their children. What field are you engaging with?
epigenetics
Identify the term that reflects the belief that one's own culture or way of life is normal, natural, or even superior to that of others. People who subscribe to this belief may use their culture as a basis to evaluate and judge the cultural ideas and practices of others.
ethnocentrism
In late-nineteenth-century debates on immigration in the United States, many scholars and government officials privileged northern European immigrants over southern Europeans, such as Italians and Greeks, whom they saw as a separate, inferior biological race with primitive ways. This is an example of
ethnocentrism.
Your new smartphone was manufactured in Shenzhen, China, where there are laxer environmental and labor laws than in the United States, and its software was outsourced to telecommuters in Hyderabad, India, where wages for programmers are lower. These strategies, which use transportation and communications technologies to maximize profits, are known as
flexible accumulation.
People are biological creatures as well as social beings. In order to gain a complete understanding of any aspect of human behavior, the field of anthropology adopts what strategy?
four-field approach
Ifeoluwa and Grace live in different countries, practice different religions, and speak different languages. However, they both like the same clothing brands and have the same favorite television show. Their surprising similarities demonstrate the impact of
globalization
Both efforts to enforce and deviate from standard English in a school setting frequently evoke controversy. What did the schools in Oakland, California, that introduced Ebonics seek to accomplish?
help African American children succeed in school
The Latin language of ancient Rome is no longer spoken routinely. What kind of work is needed to examine how Latin changed into the Romance languages of today (French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish)?
historic linguistics
Material remains help prehistoric archaeologists reconstruct
human behavior.
The author states that climate change, global warming, water scarcity, overpopulation, extreme poverty, biological weapons, and nuclear weapons pose the greatest risks to
human survival.
It is essential that ethnographers map communities because mapping
illuminates how the use of space influences social interactions.
Which of the following directly contributes to climate change and global warming?
increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases created by the burning of fossil fuels
Nepali workers building roads in India, Filipinos working as maids in Saudi Arabia, and Turkish workers repairing the streets in Germany are examples of which global dynamic?
increasing migration
Ninety-nine percent of digital communication is transmitted via undersea fiber-optic cables, the distribution of which is shown in the image. What is one negative effect of undersea fiber-optic cables?
inequality arising from the number of landing points per country
The roots of today's anthropology emerged from very early accounts of travelers in previous centuries. What about these accounts helped fuel anthropological inquiry?
intense curiosity about the nature of other unknown lands and peoples
Human beings have long been migrants, moving themselves, their material goods, and even ideas from one part of the world to another. What makes this process, which is now called globalization, seem so different today than in the past?
intensification
The advantages and disadvantages of globalization are often the subject of heated debate. Which of the following would be hailed as a positive effect of globalization?
job opportunities for people in developing nations
Sometimes words cannot convey everything. What is it called when we resort to a system of body movements and a collection of noises and tones of voice in order to convey additional information?
kinesics and paralanguage
Imagine you are getting ready to conduct an ethnography on the family and marriage history of royalty in the United Kingdom. What strategy could be considered necessary in order to understand the diverse and complex relationships among the people you're studying?
kinship analysis
Beliefs and conceptions about language that rationalize and justify patterns of stratification and inequality are called
language ideology.
The beliefs that someone with a southern accent is unsophisticated and a British accent is refined are examples of
language ideology.
Current forms of ethnographic fieldwork in cultural anthropology are rooted in
late-nineteenth-century globalization.
Horace Minor wrote "Body Ritual among the Nacirema" (1956) in order to
make the familiar strange.
It is often said that the native Aztecs mistook the Spanish conquistadors for gods. The Nahuatl word used, teotl, does mean god, but it also means demon or god impersonator (intended for sacrifice). This illustrates how language is organized into categories that
may not make sense to members of other groups with different cultural realities.
Prefixes such as "pre-," "post-," or "non-" are examples of
morphemes
What do linguists call small units of sound that carry meaning on their own?
morphemes
Sydney Mintz conducted research on sugar production in Puerto Rico in the 1970s and 1980s, examining the way local communities were affected by capitalism. What other problems did his work help to illustrate?
the consequences of globalization on communities
A historical linguist would be most likely to study
the development of language over time, including its changes and variations.
Hegemony is one of two aspects of power described by Italian political philosopher Antonio Gramsci. Which of the following situations is an example of hegemony?
the fight to make interracial marriages more socially acceptable in the United States
We often find ourselves seeing some aspect of life within our cultural context as a "natural truth" and viewing any alternative as unthinkable. What is this an expression of?
the hegemony of ideas
Which of the following might be considered a dialect?
the type of French spoken by locals at the French-Italian border
Recently, scientific researchers have been delving into how culture and human behavior are affected by our DNA. One field that studies genes is the field of epigenetics. What does the field of epigenetics study?
the ways in which gene expression is influenced by a person's environment
When the author of your textbook, cultural anthropologist Ken Guest, traveled to the remote village of Fuzhou, China, some villagers laughed and said: "Go back to New York! Most of our village is there already!" What does this anecdote illustrate?
time-space compression
The fact that only 19.5 percent of the population of the least developed countries has Internet access is an example of
uneven development.
