Final Exam Cultural Anthropology

In assessing the frequency of cultural traits, what is a cultural particularity?

A cultural trait that is found only in one culture.

What is the Anthropological term that describes what results when groups come into continuous, firsthand contact?

Acculturation

What is the most recent phase of large scale Colonialism in world history?

After the Industrial Revolution, European empires extended their rule over other nations, especially in Asia and Africa.

In the reading, "Weapons of the Weak," by James Scott, we learned that individuals have the ability to find ways to exert their own power and can change their surroundings to attain their own freedoms. What is this non-determinist theory that sees each person as capable of exercising power and enacting change?

Agency Theory

The branch of anthropological theory that stresses how cultures survive in reaction to forces of Westernization by focusing on local people's power and control over how their culture changes is called?

Agency Theory

What is the process through which a minority minority ethnic group takes on the cultural patterns and norms of the dominant majority group?

Assimilation

This type of kinship terminology splits the two lines of descent, differentiating between relatives on the mother's side of the family and those on the father's side, and then also distinguishes between relatives in the nuclear family and more extended relatives. It is the most complex terminology because it has the most possible terms.

Bifurcate Collateral Terminology

Where are the Canela located?

Brazil

Which level of socio-political organization involves some type of permanent system for political regulation, clearly defined leader, and understood offices of authority, but does not yet have rigid institutions of population control, a judiciar system, law enforcement, and a fiscal system?

Chiefdom

What is the political, social, economic, and cultural domination of a territory and its people by a foreign power for an extended period of time?

Colonialism

In the discussion about female genital mutilation, we came to understand how this is an important cultural norm for some socieites, and how culture is a powerful force that can shape human behavior. Which anthropological theory is this?

Cultural Determinism

In the film about the !Kung foraging society and reading about the Inuit hunting society anthropologists consider environmental setting, the ecosystem, as key to defining cultural adaptions. What type of anthropological theory is this?

Cultural Ecology

The Kalahari Desert is a hot and ry environmental setting that determines the !Kung way of life by forcing them to move from location to location in order to best procure available wild resources and water. Which theoretical perspective in cultural anthropology does this interpretation reflect?

Cultural Ecology

Which type of anthropological theory argues that the differences in various cultures' environmental settings are the most important in determining cultural diversity and particular developments?

Cultural Ecology

The spread of one culture's characteristics at the expense of other cultures.

Cultural Imperialism

What is the branch of Applied Anthropology that focuses on social issues in, and the cultural dimensions of, economic development?

Development Anthropology

What is intervention philosophy often used to justify?

Economic Development

What is the Anthropological term that describes how individuals come to learn their culture by absorbing the norms of the society around them?

Enculturation

What is the identification with an ethnic group that shares certain beliefs, values, habits, customs, and norms, often because of common background?

Ethnicity

Which animals are included in the primate order?

-Lemurs -Monkeys -People -Apes

What are the three levels of Cultural Relativism, as defined by John Omohundro?

-Moderate doctrine -Comparison taboo -Strong doctrine

What are the Goals of Indigenous Rights Movements?

-Respect for Cultural Distinctiveness -Political Reforms -Rights to Land and Resources -Stop to Discrimination

What are the seven theories in cultural anthropology?

-Unilineal Cultural Evolution -Historical Particularism -Cultural Determinism -Cultural Materialism -Cultural Ecology -Symbolic Anthropology -Agency theory

What are the cultural characteristics that tend to correlate with the foraging type of adaptive strategy?

-band level socio-political organization -a nomadic, mobile lifestyle -a division of labor based on gender, in which women and men each have their own specific role in the subsistence economy -a focus on the nuclear family as the basic unit of kinship organization

Seven characteristics of culture

-learned -shared -symbolic -different from nature -all-encompassing -integrated -adaptive or maladaptive

What are the five Alternative Ends that people might try to balance their resources toward?

1-Subsistence Fund 2-Replacement Fund 3-Social Fund 4-Ceremonial Fund 5-Rent Fund

Which anthropologist is most closely associated with the theory of Cultural Materialism?

Marvin Harris

What is the branch of Applied Anthropology that attempts to understand how different cultures perceive illness, health, disease, and the body in order to find the best ways to introduce options from Western medicine?

Medical Anthropology

What is the hypothesis that argues that our brain structures shape the ways that humans communicate?

Noam Chomsky's Universal Grammar

What is the common problem in development that results from poor planning in which the amount of change that is wanted, desired, or appropriate for the particular community is overestimated and the plans are too ambitious?

Overinnovation

What is the primary research technique used to collect cultural data when an ethnographer goes to live with another community and document characteristics of their culture?

Participant Observation

The marriage of a woman two or more men at a time

Polyandry

What is the difference between a scholarly journal article and a popular magazine article?

Scholarly journal articles are written in the jargon of the discipline, but magazine articles include clear and simple writing.

Which interpretation for seal hunting in Newfoundland reflects the approach of Cultural Relativism?

Seal hunting was an important part of the economy and a crucial component of social identity for Newfoundland males and should have been considered within its cultural context.

In which particular field of research does Deborah Tannen work?

Sociolinguistics

Kind of durable marriage alliance. If the wife dies, the families will try to get together to find a new wife to replace her, such as a sister or cousin.

Sororate

In our example from Rapa Iti, we interpreted the cultural meaning having to do with the afterlife that was being expressed by their choral singing. What realm of anthropological theory does this interpretation come from?

Symbolic Anthropology

What level of cultural relativism does not want you to compare cultures by evaluating personality traits?

The Comparison Taboo

When using cultural relativism, we are practicing which approach?

The emic approach

What is the Modern World System?

The global circumstance that we are in today, in which nations are economically and politically interdependent.

What is Socioeconomic stratification?

The intensification of social and economic differences based on wealth, power, and prestige, and resulting in a society with separate classes.

What is female genital mutilation?

The non-medical cutting or removal of female genitalia for religious or cultural reasons.

Enculturation

The process through which an individual learns his or her culture.

What does it mean to take an emic point of view?

To try to understand a culture's practices based on an insider's point of view.

Which anthropologist described different typed of adaptive strategies in his studies of systems of economic production?

Yehudi Cohen

The subfield of anthropology in which scholars study human society and culture. These researchers describe, analyze, interpret, and explain social and cultural similarities and differences.

cultural anthropology

What is a social system in which there is no distinction based on hereditary social inequality?

egalitarian

Which is the purest type of reciprocity, in which giving is done freely, between people in a personal relationship, and without expectations for immediate reciprocation?

generalized reciprocity

Proposed by Franz Boas, this approach to studying cultures emphasizes the distinct histories and circumstances that led to change in any given culture.

historical particularism

What type of kinship system and residence rule are demonstrated by the Canela?

matrilineal and matrilocal

What type of religion recognizes one supreme supernatural entity?

monotheistic

What is a personal characteristic that would identify someone's gender rather then their sex?

participation in typically male activities within his community

Which would be an example of a national culture? -German/American -Italian -Christianity -Soccer

Italian

When the male/husband dies, the family works together to replace him.

Levirate

Which Ethnographic Method seeks an intimate and illustrative example of community life by narrating the experiences of a few key people as they go through childhood, become young adults, and grow old in the community?

Life Histories

What are the Functions of Art?

-Convey a Moral Lesson -Catharsis -Art for Art's Sake -Commemoration -Express Social Norms -Challenge Social Norms

In, "The Price of Progress" article, Bodley describes some more specific Prices of Progress - what are they?

-Diseases of Development -Hazards of Dietary Change -Ecocide -Deprivation and Discrimination

What are the possible Functions of Religion?

-Explanatory Purpose -Ease Anxiety and Provide Comfort -Provide Principles of Right and Wrong -Create Group Solidarity -Social Control

Which response to globalization/modernization is seen when a religious group views change as corrupting, preferring instead to return to more traditional values and a narrower belief system?

Fundamentalism

Is the following a characteristic of Sex or Gender: Participating in typical male activities

Gender

Which economic theory of motivation, proposed by Karl Polanyi, sees people as being motivated by non-monetary gain such as prestige, confort, social harmony, or other cultural values?

Substantivist economics

When a woman's death results in the wife's family sending a relative to replace the deceased woman and maintain the alliance even through the death of one of the spouses, what is formed?

sororate

What point of view argues that behavior in one culture should not be judged by the standards of another culture?

Cultural Relativism

Which characteristic of culture can be seen in the way we make our food choices based more on social goals (such as where we eat and who we eat with) and less with meeting our basic human needs?

Culture is different from Nature

This type of descent traces kinship only through the female line, and is found in only 15% of the world's known cultural system.

Matrilineal

Which type of anthropological theory considers not only the ways that culture determines people's behavior, but also how individuals and groups can shape, influence, and change cultural structures?

agency theory

Which type of social status is inherited at birth?

ascribed status

In our reading Baseball Magic by George Gmelch, we learned about some practices conducted by athletes to ensure success, specifically in baseball hitting and pitching. These examples fall under the anthropological definition of religion because:

they call on supernatural forces

Which of the following is considered a universal cultural trait? -the English language -monogamous marriages -the incest taboo -a food item particular to a certain culture

the incest taboo

Development Programs Must:

-Be culturally compatible with the community -Respond to locally perceived needs -Involve local men and women in planning and enactment -Harness traditional organizations -Be flexible

What are the rules in the American Anthropological Association's Code of Ethics?

-Be open and honest about research intentions -Always act in an ethical way and with the community's best interest in mind. -Reciprocate in appropriate ways for the aid that is provided by the host community during research.

What are the four types of Socio-political Systems?

1-Bands 2-Tribes 3-Chiefdoms 4-States

What are two common problems of economic development?

1-Overinnovation 2-Underdifferentiation

What are the three Residence Patterns?

1-Patrilocal 2-Matrilocal 3-Neolocal

What are the two types of Durable Marriage Alliances?

1-Sororate 2-Levirate

What type of research in anthropology is the comparative study of the musics of the world?

Ethnomusicology

Many societies focus on the nuclear family as the basic family unit, and when a couple gets married, they move into their own residence and often start a family of procreation. What type of residence pattern is described here?

Neolocal

Is the following a characteristic of Sex or Gender: Chromosomal makeup of one X and one Y chromosome

Sex

Is the following a characteristic of Sex or Gender: Male genitalia

Sex

The opinion that all underdeveloped communities are similar and will respond in equal ways to development initiatives has led to which common problem in development programs?

Underdifferentiation

Which type of anthropological theory focuses on the material forces and economic factors within cultures in order to better understand cultural diversity and change?

cultural materialism

Which type of fund includes taxes or other types of payment owed to institutions of socio-political organization within a society?

rent fund

Which 19th century theory saw human societies as comparable to living organisms that would increase in complexity through time, and sought one sequence of cultural development to explain how all cultures everywhere change through time?

unilineal cultural evolution

What are the Five types of Adaptive Strategies?

1-Foraging 2-Horticulture 3-Agriculture 4-Pastoralism 5-Industrialism

What are three types of Marriage?

1-Monogamy 2-Polygyny 3-Polyandry

What are the nine ethnographic techniques?

1-Observation and Participant Observation 2-Conversations and Interviews 3-The Genealogical Method 4-Key Consultants 5-Life Histories 6-Local Beliefs and those of the Ethnographer 7-Problem-Oriented Research 8-Longitudinal Research 9-Team Research

What is the term that refers to policies and practices that are rooted in prejudice and harm a group and its members?

Discrimination

What are the Three Types of Descent?

1-Bilateral Kinship 2-Matrilineal Descent 3-Patrilineal Descent

What are some examples of Applied Anthropology?

-cultural anthropology aiding in the implementation of medical treatments abroad -the use of ethnographic techniques to help a corporation run more smoothly -the use of archaeological techniques to recover the remains of disaster victims -studies of speech patterns among Americans to better understand modern social relations.

"Witness to Genocide" is an article that we read about forensic archaeology in Iraq that is providing evidence for use in the International Justice case against crimes of genocide in the Anfal campaign. What specific evidence recovered by these applied anthropologists was especially useful to make this conviction?

-cultural items determined that the people were all of one ethnic group -the many deceased infants concluded this was not military-related -the individuals were killed systematically

What are the language abilities that nonhuman primates have demonstrated when working with primatologists?

-cultural transmission of language -productivity -displacement -learning non-vocal communication techniques

Which ethnographic techniques did we see William Crocker utilizing while studying the Canela?

-participant observation -longitudinal research -key consultants -conversations and interviews

British and French colonialism influenced which sectors of other societies?

-the economy -politics -trade -social institutions such as religion

What were the factors identified by Nancy Scheper-Hughes in "Death Without Weeping" as a reason for the routinization of infant death and extraordinary distance between mothers and their infant children?

-the poor infrastructure of the community, which was meant to be temporary -the disregard shown by the local health clinic toward the starving children -the migrant labor demand that separates individuals from support networks -the unwillingness of the Catholic church to allow birth control methods

What are some of the things that can happen when workers are alienated from the product of their labor, as often happens in modern industrial economic systems?

-workers no longer have control over the means or relations of production -the work environment is highly depersonalized -workers receive cash for their labor, which they can exchange for other goods -workers do not feel pride in or personal identification with the products that they create

What is the specific field of anthropology that applies anthropological data, techniques, perspectives, theory, and methods to the wider world that we live in, with the goal of solving contemporary social problems.

Applied Anthropology

A scholar in which subfield of Anthropology would try to reconstruct, describe, and interpret past human behavior and cultural patterns through material remains?

Archaeological Anthropology

Anthropologists that believe that the adaptive strategy, economic system, or mode of production is most important in determining other aspects of the cultural system and influencing how the culture will change fall under which type of anthropological theory?

Cultural Materialism

In our reading, When Brothers Share a Wife, they argue that practicing fraternal polyandry is the most successful survival strategy available to their group. What anthropological theory is?

Cultural Materialism

In our reading, "When Brothers Share a Wife" by Melvyn Goldstein, plural marriage is understood as being the norm by the people living in this society because it allows for the family to maintain land rights and prevents resources from being split up between several different nuclear family units. From which perspective comes this explanation?

Emic

In which field of study in cultural anthropology do scholars compare and contrast different cultural groups and practices in order to provide a more generalized understanding of the human experience?

Ethnology

The most common type of marriage rule is that of out-marriage, in which people are not permitted to marry someone form within their own kinship group. What is another name for this type of marriage rule?

Exogamy

When two or more brothers are married to the same woman.

Fraternal Polyandry

What do anthropologists call the type of social control in which subordinates comply with domination, even in situations of extremely abusive regimes, because they have internalized the inequality to the point that they accept it as the natural order?

Hegemony

Who first proposed this theory by arguing that human societies could be usefully compared to biological organisms and that their development could be understood through the laws of evolution?

Herbert Spencer

At one end of the cultivation continuum lies the agricultural adaptive strategy with intensive use of the land, large labor input, and the use of more sophisticated farming technology. Which adaptive strategy lies at the other end of this continuum?

Horticulture

Slash-and-burn is a subsistence technique traditionally seen in which type of adaptive strategy?

Horticulture

Indigenized cultural traits are appropriated by a new group, but modified to fit local culture.

Indigenized

Who are the people with early historic connections to the place where they live. Who self-identify as a political group because they faced past oppression and now seek social, cultural, and political rights.

Indigenous People

What do we call the idea that by guiding the changes that are occurring in a particular society, more developed nations can help or benefit underdeveloped nations-an idea that is often used to justify international economic development?

Interventionist Philosophy

What is the most important part of anthropology's definition of race?

It is a social construct, it is not biological

Which anthropologist is most closely associated with the theory of Cultural Ecology?

Julian Steward

Who is the person that ethnographic researchers rely on from within a community who, because by accident, experience, talent, or training, can provide complete and useful information about life in that society.

Key Consultants

What type of ethnographic method is this? Scenario: A university professor began his career by providing the first ethnographic description of a culture in Brazil. Since then, he has returned to this society several times, to study various topics. Currently, he corresponds with community members about globalization, and is still writing articles about this group.

Longitudinal Research

Within the mode of production, which part includes all of those resources, such as land, labor and technology, that are needed for the economic system to function?

Means of Production

The marriage of one woman to one man

Monogamy

What is it called in linguistics when sounds and symbols are grouped together to create words with particular meanings.

Morphemes

What do we call the belief that ethnic diversity is something good and desirable?

Multiculturalism

Which anthropological term is defined as any position that determines where someone fits in society?

social status

As pastoralists frequently need to move from place to place to find the necessary resources for their animals, a specific type of residential pattern has developed in which the entire community moves from place to place to care for the animals. What is this type of pastoral residential mobility called?

Pastoral nomadism

The marriage of a man to more than one wife.

Polygyny

What is the specific type of plural marriage that occurs when a man has more than one wife?

Polygyny

What type of religion recognizes multiple deities?

Polytheistic

What are the studies that focus on the interactions between European nations and the societies they colonized to try to understand how modern cultural identities have been shaped by past instances of colonialism

Postocolonial

What type of ethnographic method is seen when ethnographers enter the field with a specific topic to investigate and collect data relevant to that issue?

Problem-Oriented Ethnography

In anthropology, what do we call an ethnic category that is a social construct but is assumed to have biological basis?

Race

What is the talk that is used by women to build a connection and emphasize emotional self-disclosure and empathy?

Rapport-talk

Which type of religious specialist works part-time and usually for pay as a curer, diviner, or spiritual medium within their society?

Shaman

What type of theory in cultural anthropology focuses on interpreting the meaning behind works of art or the significance of particular beliefs in the supernatural?

Symbolic Anthropology

The study of which of the following would involve looking at how words are grouped into phrases and sentences that create more complex meanings?

Syntax

What do cultural anthropologists call the ethnographic method in which family relationships are traced between community members and social ties are documented and recorded?

The Genealogical Method

Which level of cultural relativism argues that you should avoid ethnocentrism and judge a group only in the context of their own history and culture, not yours.

The Moderate Doctrine

Which hypothesis states that linguistic abilities and the different languages that we speak shape our thoughts and mental processes (influences the way that we think).

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

According to John Omohundro, which level of cultural relativism would argue that there are no human universals and that cultures should be able to maintain their traditional beliefs and practices, whatever they are, with no interference from outsiders?

The Strong Doctrine

According to what we read in the "Report-talk and Rapport-talk" article, what is the Report-talk?

The type of communication that is conducted by men to establish and maintain status and power.

In "Witness to Genocide," what happened to the remains of the victims?

They were returned to their people for proper mortuary rites based on cultural beliefs.

According to the reading, "Am I Judging This?" by John Omohundro, what does it mean when someone is experiencing Culture Shock?

This person is experiencing a defensive psychological response to prolonged removal from his or her own culture and interaction with another culture.

What does it mean to take the Anthropological Perspective?

To avoid ethnocentrism and act as an objective outsider.

What is the point of the Body Ritual Among the Nacirema article?

To force Americans to confront their own ethnocentrism by showing that American cultural practices could be seen as strange or weird.

Why do anthropologists strive to consider the etic and the emic perspectives in their ethnographic field work?

To identify and present both points of view.

What is the adaptive strategy studied by Lewis Henry Morgan argues that every human society had either passed through three stages: Savagery, Barbarism, and Civilization?

Unilineal Cultural Evolution

Our identity is based on all of the many roles that we play in society. What is the situational negotiation of status identity?

We are able to shift the social roles that we express at any given time.

What concept, defined by James Scott, involves subtle ways that people are able to exert control from the subordinate sector of society against the superordinate sector in hidden transcript, even in situations or extreme inequality or domination?

Weapons of the Weak

The spread of cultural characteristics from the West to the rest of the world.

Westernization

What is defined as the manifestation of human creativity in music, performance, visual arts, storytelling, and literature, and is often called expressive culture?

art

Which type of social status is seen in chiefdom sociopolitical organization, but not in tribes?

ascribed status

According to the World Systems Theories outlined by Immanuel Wallerstein, the Modern World System is characterized by much socioeconomic tension, namely between the ________, or the developed, industrialized, democratic parts of the world, and the ________ areas that include the poorer sector of the world's population which often struggles to provide resources, products, and services for little in return.

core, periphery

Composed of the traditions and customs, transmitted through learning, that form and guide the beliefs and behavior of the people exposed to them. It is distinctly human.

culture

Which characteristic of culture can be seen in the way that we use our natural resources at very fast rates of consumption, leaving little behind for the future and often harming the environment in the process?

culture can be maladaptive

Which characteristic of culture focuses on the fact that humans have a unique ability to associate signs with abstract meanings?

culture is symbolic

The tendency to view one's own culture as best and to judge the behaviors and beliefs of culturally different people by one's own standards.

ethnocentrism

In the article, Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, Horace Miner provides a good example of...

ethnographic description, but does not follow the guideline of considering both the emic and etic perspectives, leading to a biased portrayal of this cultural group.

Which adaptive strategy characterized all existing human subsistence practices until about 10,000 years ago, when the first instances of food production came about?

foraging

One of the film clips that we watched in class highlighted the way of life of the !Kung group of the San Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert. Which type of adaptive strategy and level of sociopolitical organization were demonstrated by this group?

foraging band

Which of the following is the most important part of the definition of gender?

it is culturally constructed

What is the term given by Max Weber to describe the intensification of differences in wealth, power, and prestige within a society until there is a clearly recognized superordinate elite sector of society and a subordinate lower stratum?

social stratification