Anthropology Questions + Answers for Midterm #1

What were the primary motivations for European expansion?

A combination of religious faith, greed, new social arrangements, and new technologies drove European expansion.

What is development and what different approaches have been taken to it?

After World War II, economists believed that many nations were poor because they had underdeveloped economies. Development was the idea of creating wealth in poor nations. In the 1950's and 1960's, modernization approaches focused on basic human needs. Since the 1980's, structural adjustment programs have focused on enforcing free markets in the hope that these will create more efficient delivery of services.

What are some important characteristics of Muslim immigrants in the United States?

After the new immigration laws of 1965, Muslim immigration both increased and diversified. Their ethnic differences have become less important than their religious identity as Muslims, which is expressed in the expansion of Muslim institutions and practices, particularly among the younger generation. American Muslims are mostly middle class, in contrast to European Muslims, who are largely economically disenfranchised.

What are the major characteristics of the agricultural subsistence strategy?

Agriculturalists farm on stable fields using crop rotation and fertilization to maintain land fertility. Agriculture may involve the use of irrigation, animal-drawn plows, and other technology. This food-getting pattern generally supports greater population densities than all but industrial patterns. It is associated with sedentary village life and the rise of the state.

How is research in anthropology today different from research in the early 20th century?

Almost all anthropologists today do fieldwork, and many continue to work in small communities. Most focus on answering specific questions rather than describing entire societies. Anthropological techniques include participant observation, interviews, questionnaires, and mapping.

To what degree is the current distribution of wealth and power in the world similar to what it was 1000 years ago?

Although we are aware of history, we tend to think of current world conditions as similar to past conditions. This is incorrect. The world as we see it is the result of historical processes that have moved wealth and power from one area to another. Places that are impoverished today were in many cases wealthy 1000 years ago. The rise of today's wealthy nations was connected with the emergence of modern poverty.

Define innovation and diffusion and describe their importance to culture.

An innovation is a new variation on an existing cultural pattern. Diffusion is the spread of elements from one culture to another. Both are present in all cultures. However, both depend on cultural context. New cultural traits build upon older traits, and the use and meaning of symbols and objects may change as they move among cultures. Within society, new traits may favor some groups and be opposed by others.

What are some ethical dilemmas that face anthropologists?

Anthropological ethics require protecting the dignity, privacy, and anonymity of the people one studies as well as obtaining their informed consent. However, it is not clear that this can be accomplished in all cases. In places of violence and instability, anthropologists may not have the knowledge or power necessary to provide such protection. The use of anthropologists ins the military presents an extremely difficult ethical issue for many anthropologists.

What was the role of anthropology in colonialism?

Anthropological knowledge was sometimes used in the process of colonialism, and some anthropologists wished to make themselves useful to colonial governments. However, anthropology did not come into being to promote colonialism, which would have gone on without it.

What are emic and etic perspectives?

Anthropological research styles are sometimes characterized as either emic or etic. Anthropologists using the emic perspective seek to understand how cultures look from the inside. Their goal is to enable cultural outsiders to gain a sense of what it might be like to be a member of the culture. Anthropologists using an etic perspective derive principles or rules that explain the behavior of members of a culture. Etic research is judged by usefulness of the hypotheses it generates and the degree to which it accurately describes behavior, not by whether or not members of the culture studied agree with it conclusions.

How have anthropologists responded to the increasing interconnections among people throughout the world?

Anthropologists are deeply concerned with documenting and understanding the ways in which global economic, social, and political processes affect local culture throughout the world. Anthropologists have often been involved in advancing the rights and interests of native peoples.

What is the importance of anthropology in an increasingly globalized world?

Anthropologists are increasingly enmeshed in a global society. Those they study are rarely isolated and are often quite knowledgable about anthropology. Anthropological knowledge is often important in the ways people understand their identity and, as such, is increasingly political.

Do anthropologists agree on the definition and meaning of culture?

Anthropologists argue frequently over the proper definition of culture and the right was to study and understand it. Our understanding of culture progresses through such discussion and debate.

What is the purpose of the RACE Project? How is it based on an anthropological definition of race?

Anthropologists define race as a culturally constructed category that refers to groups of people perceived as sharing similar physical and other characteristics transmitted by heredity. The RACE Project, a traveling museum exhibit, demonstrates that although race is a scientifically invalid concept, racial categories are important in many systems of social stratification.

When did anthropology begin as an academic discipline and what were the methods and goals of early anthropologists?

Anthropology began in the 19th century. In that era, anthropologists were compliers of data rather than fieldworkers. Their goal was to describe and document the evolutionary history of human society. There were numerous problems with their data and methods.

What is the anthropological perspective on race?

Anthropology demonstrated that race is not a valid scientific category, but rather an important social and cultural construct. rather

In what ways is anthropological thinking useful in the world?

Anthropology focuses on understanding other groups of people. This is critical because people are more in contact with each other than ever before. Anthropologists grapple with the question of what it means it be a human being. Anthropologists attempt to observe, collect, record, and understand the full range of human cultural experience. Anthropology presents many useful ways of thinking about culture. Learning how other peoples in other places solved their problems may give us insight to solve our own. Additionally, we can learn lessons from their cultural experience.

In what ways is anthropology holistic?

Anthropology is holistic in that combines the study of human biology, history, and the learned and shared patterns of human behavior and thought we call culture in order to analyze human groups.

What is anthropology's relationship to other university disciplines and what sorts of jobs do anthropology majors hold?

Anthropology is part of the liberal arts curriculum. Both the job prospects and the careers of those who study anthropology are similar to those who study other liberal arts disciplines. Anthropology courses develop ways of thinking that are applicable to the broad range of occupation that anthropologists follow.

What is the definition of anthropology?

Anthropology is the comparative study of human societies and cultures. Its goal is to describe, analyze, and explain different cultures, to show how groups have adapted to their environments and given significance to their lives.

What do applied anthropologists do?

Applied anthropologists are trained in one of the other subfields. They use anthropological research techniques to solve social, political, and economical problems for governments and other organizations.

What is the focus of study of archaeology?

Archaeologists try to reconstruct past cultures through the study of their material remains.

What is relationship between population, social complexity, and specialization?

As societies become more populous and complex, the number of specialized jobs found in them increases. This is particularly true where societies are dependent on grain agriculture or industrialism. In preindustrial societies, like traditional India, kin groups may have rights or duties to perform particular specializations. Current-day wealthy societies have extremely high degrees of specialization. This creates great efficiency but involved changing notions of identity and often has heavy human costs.

Describe the importance of learning in human cultural behavior.

At a basic level, culture is learned behavior. For humans, almost all behavior is at least partially learned, even those things, such as eating, that are biological necessities involved cultural learning. Anthropologists interested in the ways in which culture is learned often study cross-cultural variation in child rearing.

What is the focus of study of biological anthropology?

Biological anthropologists study humankind from a biological perspective, focusing on evolution, human variation, skeletal analysis, primatology, as well as other facets of human biology.

Who was Bronislaw Malinowski and what role did he play in anthropology?

Bronislaw Malinowski was a British trained anthropologist whose approach and fieldwork were critical in establishing anthropology in Britain. Although the focus of Malinowski's work was different from Boas's, both emphasized participant observation and both saw members of other cultures as fully rational and worthy of respect.

What was colonialism and when did it happen?

Colonialism is the active possession of a foreign territory and the maintenance of political dominance over that territory. The Americas were first colonized in the 16th century. However, elsewhere in the world, colonization did not happen until the 19th century.

Name some critical issues that concern cultural anthropologists.

Critical issues that concern all cultural anthropologists include ethnocentrism, cultural relativism, race, and globalization.

What is the focus of study of cultural anthropology?

Cultural anthropology focuses on the learned and shared way of behaving typical of a particular human group. particular

What is cultural relativism and is it the same as moral relativism?

Cultural relativism is the belief that cultures must be understood as the products of their own histories, rather than judged by comparison with each other or with our own culture. Anthropologists note that cultural relativism differs from moral relativism; understanding cultures on their own terms does not necessarily imply approval of them.

Define culture.

Culture is the learned, symbolic, at least partially adaptive, and ever-changing patterns of behavior and meaning shared by members of a group.

Are there any cultures that are static and unchanging?

Cultures are constantly changing. There have been no "Stone Age people" since the Stone Age. Cultural change often occurs as part of the domination of one culture by another. This process has occurred throughout human history, but it has been particularly important in the past few centuries.

Describe the importance of symbols in human cultural behavior.

Cultures are symbolic systems, mental templated for organizing the world. Every culture has a system of classification through which its people identify and organize the aspects of the world that are important to them. Culture is also a collection of symbols and meanings that permit us to understand others, understand ourselves, and experience our humanity. It is the web of significance that gives meaning to our lives and actions.

In what ways are cultures like biological organisms and what are the problems with this organic analogy?

Cultures, like biological organisms, can be thought as systems composed of interrelated parts. Changes in one aspect of culture result in other changes as well. However, unlike biological organisms, conflicts between different elements of culture are found in all cultural systems. If culture is a system, its parts do not fit together easily or well.

What are prospects for the human future?

Despite the difficulties facing us, the future is not necessarily bleak. Anthropology gives us the tools to deal with a world characterized by diversity. Anthropology instructs us that human are cultural beings. Cultures can be changed and perhaps improved. For humans, biology is never destiny.

What is the relationship between the environment and subsistence (food-getting) pattern of a society?

Different physical environments present different problems, opportunities, and limitations to human populations. The subsistence (food-getting) pattern of a society develops in response to seasonal variation in the environment and environmental variations such as drought, flood, or animal diseases. As populations have increased and more complex forms of social and economic organization have developed, humans have had increasingly intensive impacts on their environments.

What is economics and what is economic behavior?

Economics is the study of the ways in which the choices people make combine to determine how their societies use their scarce resources to produce and distribute goods and services. Economists assume that people will generally engage in economizing behavior, that they will allocate their scarce goods and resources in ways that maximize their benefit.

What are engaged and collaborative anthropology?

Engaged and collaborative anthropology place special emphasis on some of the issues raised by postmodernism. Collaborative anthropologists take great pains to involved members of the groups they study in the production of ethnographic knowledge. Engaged anthropologists take place special emphasis on the political dimensions of their work and combine fieldwork with political and social activism.

What is ethnocentrism and what is its importance in the study of different cultures?

Ethnocentrism is the notion that one's own culture is superior to all others. Anthropologists find that ethnocentrism is common among almost all people and may serve important roles in society. However, anthropology also shows the problems of judging other people thought the narrow perspective of one's own culture.

Why did Europeans colonize in the 19th century and how did they justify their taking of colonial possessions?

Europeans colonized because of the collapse of earlier mercantilist firms or to protect their national companies from competition from other Europeans. They wished to increase their wealth and protect their trade. They justified colonialism by calling it a civilizing mission.

What methods did Europeans use to try to make colonialism pay?

Europeans pressed colonial subjects into forced labor on roads and other projects. They used taxation in colonial money to fund the government and force natives to participate in the European dominated cash economy. They used education programs to discredit local culture and create a class of people who could help with colonial administration.

In what parts of the world were Europeans most successful at capturing and controlling new lands and why?

Europeans were most successful in controlling lands in the Americas. This was because Native Americans lacked resistance to European diseases. As a result, native societies were depopulated and succumbed to European military pressure.

Are problems of environmental pollution more or less severe in poor nations?

Even though the poor produce only a small percentage of the world's pollution, environments in poor nations frequently are more polluted than those in rich nations. Global warming is anticipated to have more dire effect in poor countries because many of these are located in ecologically fragile zones that have limited financial resources to cope with environmental change. countries

What is foraging? How has the Inuit foraging strategy been affected by global warming?

Foraging is reliance on food naturally available in the environment and acquired through hunting, gathering, and fishing. It was the major food-getting pattern during almost all of the time humans have been on earth. Although this way of life is rapidly disappearing, foraging is still a useful adjunct to other subsistence strategies for many societies. With the gradual decrease in Arctic ice, many Inuit have had to change the timing and focus of their traditional foraging strategy and seek alternative ways of getting food.

Who was Franz Boas and what role did he play in American anthropology?

Franz Boas was a German trained social scientists. In the United States, Franz Boas established a style of anthropology that rejected evolutionism. Boas insisted that anthropologists collect data through participant observation. He argued that cultures were the result of their own history and could not be compared to one another, a position called cultural relativism.

What are the differences between functionalist and conflict theories of social stratification?

Functionalist theory holds that social stratification benefits the whole society because it motivates people to undertake all the jobs necessary for the society to survive. Conflict theory emphasizes the conflicts that occur within stratified societies as different social strata, with opposing interests, clash with one another over goals and resources.

What are the major dimensions of horticulture as a subsistence strategy?

Horticulturalists rely on gardens and fields. Horticulture is typically (though not exclusively) a tropical forest adaptation and requires the cutting and burning of jungle to clear areas for cultivation. Gardens are used for several years then allowed to lie fallow for long periods to restore fertility.

What are the core elements of a social class system?

In a class system, social position is ideally achieved, rather than ascribed, although in reality class status is also ascribed. People can move between the social classes. Classes are largely based on differences of income and wealth, but also characterized by different lifestyles and cultural differences.

What different systems of distribution are described in this chapter?

In all societies there are systems for distributing and consuming goods and services. Every society uses some combination of reciprocity, redistribution, and the market to redistribute goods and services to provide patterns and standards for their consumption.

What are the defining characteristics of capitalism?

In capitalism, the owners of productive resources use them to increase their financial wealth. In capitalist societies, productive resources are held primarily by a small percentage of the population, most people sell their labor for wages, and the value of people's labor is always more than the wages they receive. Capitalism can be masked by other relationships such as reciprocity.

How does the allocation of productive resources vary as social complexity increases?

In general, as social complexity increases, access to productive resources becomes more restricted. In foraging societies, all people usually have access to all resources. Among pastoralists, ownership of animals is vested in families and kin groups. Among horticulturalists, people may control land in which they have invested labor. Among agriculturalists, many productive resources are owned by specific individuals.

What are the chief characteristics of market exchange and where is it found?

In market exchange, goods and services are bought and sold at a money price determined by market forces. In principle, market exchange is impersonal and occurs without regard to the social position of the participants. Market exchange is the most common mechanism of exchange in the world today and is found in most societies.

What is redistribution and in what kinds of societies is it commonly found?

In redistribution, goods are collected to a social center from which they are given out to the group in a new pattern. Redistribution occurs in many different contexts but is particularly common in societies that have bigmen and chiefdoms, and in states. Potlatch among Northwest coastal Native Americans provides an example of redistribution. Some forms of redistribution act as leveling mechanisms, forcing wealthier individuals to disburse part of their riches to the rest of the community.

What was the condition of Europe in the 15th century?

In the 15th century, Europe was neither wealthy nor technologically advanced. The centers of world power lay primarily in the Middle East and Asia. However, Europe was poised on the brink of a great expansion.

What are the main characteristics of industrialism? How is industrialism related to the global economy?

Industrialism is a system in which mechanical and chemical processes are used for the production of goods. In industrialized societies, very small agricultural populations are able to support vast numbers of people who are not directly engaged in agriculture. Industrialism requires a large, mobile labor force. The global economy links markets into a worldwide network resulting in the movement of goods, capital, and people among widely disparate locations. Industrialism has resulted in great material prosperity for many people, but at the cost of high levels of inequality and environmental destruction.

How is labor organized in most preindustrial and peasant economies?

Labor must be organized in specific ways to produce goods. In most preindustrial and peasant economies, labor is organized by the household or kin group. Work that people both perform and receive locates them with respect in their social network, and is often integral to their identity.

What is the focus of study of linguistic anthropology?

Linguistic anthropology examines the history, structure, and variation of human language.

How is culture similar to the biological adaptation nonhuman animals to their environments?

Many anthropologists understand culture as the major adaptive mechanism of the human species. Whereas other animals adapt primarily through biological mechanisms, humans satisfy their needs for food, shelter, and safety largely through the use of culture. Cultural adaptation has advantages of speed and flexibility but disadvantages of information and maladaptive practices.

What is feminist anthropology and what is its importance in the development of anthropological thinking?

Most anthropology before the late 1960s focused on men's lives. In the 1960s feminist anthropology was a movement to change the focus of anthropology to include all people and to increase the number of female anthropologists. Feminist anthropology began a trend of thinking about both the structure of anthropology as a discipline and the role of gender, power, and voice in society.

When did the colonies taken in the 19th century gain their independence and what key factors were responsible for this?

Most colonies gained their independence between the end of World War II and 1965. Civil unrest in the colonies, the emergence of the United States and the Soviet Union as superpowers, and changed the structure of international economics played critical roles in the timing of independence.

What are multinational corporations (MNCs) and why is their role in poverty important?

Multinationals are corporations that own business enterprises in more than one nation. They are able to seek the most profitable venues to produce and market goods regardless of national boundaries. Many of MNCs have annual budgets far larger than most countries. This ad their mobility give them huge economic and political power. MNCs search for the most profitable places to buy, sell, and manufactue goods. Their effect in poor nations is extremely controversial. However, it is clear that shareholders, located primarily in wealthy nations, are the primary beneficiaries of MNC activities.

What are native anthropologists and what special advantages and problems do they have?

Native anthropologists are those who study their own society. Native anthropologists may have advantages of access and rapport. However, in some cases, they also experience burdens more intensely, such as whether to expose aspects of the culture that may be received unfavorably by outsiders.

What might human beings without culture be like?

No humans can truly be said to be without culture but people with autism and Asperger's syndrome give us insight into what having culture differently than others might be like.

What are norms and values? Do people within a culture agree upon them?

Norms are shared ideas about the way things ought to be done. Values are shared ideas about what is true, right and beautiful. Norms and values are not necessarily consistent and may not be shared in the same way by all members of a culture. Individuals and groups manipulate them, renegotiate them, and battle over them. Norms and values involve conflict and subjugation as well as accommodation and census.

Is overpopulation a critical problem and what critical factors affect our understanding of it?

Overpopulation is an important problem because in many cases the rate of economic growth has failed to keep up with the rising population and in some cases, subsistence strategies have collapsed. However, historically, prosperity and population increase often go together. Further, the appropriate level of human population for any area is a political question involving critical technologies about distribution of resources and the types of environment people consider desirable.

What is participant observation?

Participant observation is the technique of gathering data on human cultures by living among the people, observing their social interaction on an ongoing daily basis, and participating as much as possible in their lives. This intensive field experience is the methodological hallmark of cultural anthropology.

What are the different kinds of pastoralism? How is pastoralism affected by its inclusion in state societies and the global economy?

Pastoralists rely on herd animals. Nomadic pastoralists move with their herds. Animals alone cannot provide the all the necessary ingredients for an adequate human diet so supplementary foods such as grains are require. Therefore, pastoralists cultivate crops or develop trading relations with food cultivators. In state societies, pastoralists are often under pressure to conform to state goals that often aim at moving pastoralists into agriculture. At the same time, the global economy provides markets for animal products.

How does Musha, an Egyptian village, illustrate a typical peasant economy? In what ways does the state impact on the economic and social life if this peasant community?

Peasants like those in Musha are cultivators who produce mainly for the subsistence of their households and who are part of larger political entities, such as the state. For peasants, agriculture is the main source of subsistence, but they also participate in the larger cash economy of the state, engage in wage labor, and have some occupational specialities. Peasant farmers make important decisions about their work within a larger economic and regulatory structure imposed by the state, landlords, and others to whom they may be in debt.

What were the key mechanisms used by Europeans to make their control of foreign territory pay?

Plunder of precious metals, the use of slave labor on monocultural plantations, and the joint stock company were all instrumental in creating wealth for Europeans. Additionally, military and diplomatic maneuvering helped draw wealth from around the world into Europe.

What role has political instability played in cultural change?

Political instability has had horrific consequences for people worldwide. Wars of independence, the Cold War, and ethnic rivalries have led to violence that has destroyed cultures and societies. Although the end of the Cold War led to the resolution of some conflict, it caused others to blossom. Of these, the worst is probably the Central African war that has now claimed more than 4 million lives.

What is postmodernism and how did it affect anthropology?

Postmodernism is a theoretical position focusing on the role of power and voice in shaping society and research. Postmodernists urged anthropologists to become more sensitive to these issues. Postmodernists also held that the objective world was unknowable and anthropologists' voice uncertain. Postmodernism created intense debate within anthropology but ultimately enriched ethnography.

What are productive resources? Give some examples.

Productive resources are the things that members of a society need to participate in the economy and access them is basic to every culture. Such resources generally include land, labor, and knowledge.

Define reciprocity and describe different types of reciprocity.

Reciprocity is the mutual give and take of goods and services among people. In generalized reciprocity individuals at a close social distance give and take without expecting immediate or specific return. Balanced reciprocity involves individuals at a medium social distance and includes a clear obligation to return goods of nearly equal value to those given. Negative reciprocity is characteristic of impersonal or unfriendly relations and involves attempting to get the better trade.

Where is resistance to capitalism found and what forms does it take?

Resistance to capitalism is found in almost all capitalist societies. Sometimes such resistance may take the form of movements for social change or violent revolution. However, in many places, people resist capitalism by owning productive resources that they use only for their own subsistence, avoiding wage labor and limiting their participation in the market. Some of the residents of Putnam County, New York, provide an example.

What are some of the economic and cultural factors associated with the rise of the American beef industry? What are the major characteristics of this form of production?

The American preference for beef is related to the association of meat eating with social status, and the increased use of packaged convenience meat and poultry, especially after World War II. This industrial strategy used by the beef industry is associated with a high use of immigrant labor, a difficult and dangerous production assembly line, the spoiling of local soil and water, and social change and conflict in rural communities. Propelled in part by American agribusiness and fast food chains, the taste for beef is increasingly international. Because beef production requires a high level of resources, this may have profound environmental implications.

What is the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) and what is it used for?

The HRAF is a database of information on more than 300 cultures. It is used for cross-cultural research. Cross-cultural researchers attempt to compare cultures to derive laws or principles that can be applied to many different cultures.

Describe the subsistence strategy of the Lua' of Thailand. How have the Lua' swidden practices been modified by their contact with other groups?

The Lua' are swidden cultivators in the mountainous region of northern Thailand. Their major crops are cotton, corn, yams, rice and sorghum; they also grow vegetables and keep pigs, water buffalo, cattle, and chickens. In addition to relying on their gardens, they also sell products at local markets. Thus, they are becoming more enmeshed in the local and global economies. This is increasingly typical of horticulturalists in the modern world.

What are the major values and strategies in the Maasai transhumant pastoralist society? What are some important challenges to their traditional subsistence strategy?

The Maasai subsistence strategy heavily depends on their extensive knowledge of their environment and features the flexible exploitation of multiple ecological niches. In addition to herding cattle, they trade small animals for honey, fish, grains, fruit, and vegetables. The Maasai strategy is challenged as their herding grounds give way to conservation and national parks, an important source of tourist income for Kenya.

What are the differences between the racial systems and racial stratification system of the United States and Brazil?

The cultural diversity of the United States has largely been framed in terms of ethnicity based on the national origins of immigrants, largely ignoring the presence of African Americans, Native Americans, and Mexican Americans. Previously committed to the assimilation of cultural minorities, multiculturalism has now supplanted the concept of the melting pot and cultural differences among immigrants and other minorities are now viewed in a more positive light.

Is there a class system in the United States? What are its main features?

The culture of the United States emphasizes "the American Dream," the idea that one can and should improve one's life chances and material wealth. Although many Americans dismiss the importance of class in the United States, there are important material and life changes differences in the different social classes. Inequality between social classes is increasing, as is downward social mobility.

What are the five sub disciplines, or specializations, of anthropology?

The five areas of specialization within anthropology are cultural anthropology, linguistics, archaeology, biological (or physical), and applied anthropology.

What are the major subsistence strategies of human populations?

The five major subsistence patterns of human populations are foraging (fishing, hunting, and gathering), pastoralism, horticulture, agriculture, and industrialism. As a whole, humankind have moved in the direction of using more complex technology, increasing its numbers, and developing more complex sociocultural systems.

What are the major dimensions of social stratification and how do they relate to other aspects of culture and society?

The major dimensions of social stratification are power, wealth, and prestige, which are closely tied to occupation. The particular value system of a culture determines how these factors interact to determine where a person is placed in the stratification system.

What is the position of Latino immigrants in the American social stratification system?

The majority of Latino immigrants from Mexico and half of these immigrants are undocumented. Latino immigrants are mainly engaged in low-wage agricultural and factory work and both legal and undocumented immigrants are vulnerable to the current hostility toward immigrants in the larger society, which centers on language issues and the strain on social services.

What are the major trends in urbanization and why are they problematic?

The world is becoming increasingly urbanized. More than half of the world's population currently lives in cities, and that number is expected to double in the next four decades. In the future, most of the world's largest cities will be in poor countries. Providing services to poor people in these cities is beyond the financial capacity of many nations.

How has migrations changed the relationships between cultures and what problems face migrants?

Very high levels of migration have created enormous flows of information and money between nations. Migrants change both the societies they and and those in which they settle, frequently enriching both. MIgrants often face discrimination, alienation, and isolation in the society where they settle.

Describe the level of inequality in the world and tell how inequality affects wealthy and poor nations.

We live in a world of extreme inequality. The wealthy and the poor often live very different lives in close proximity to each other. Although all nations suffer problems of inequality and poverty, these problems are particularly acute in poor nations and have a profound effect on many of the people that anthropologists have historically studied.