Anthropology Reading Quizzes
The number of early human-like ancestors continues to grow as new discoveries are made, supporting the view that we are all hominins.
True
Understanding how behavior patterns in monkeys and apes compare with humans can be approached using
a comparison of different species
A language of mixed origin that developed from a complex blending of two parent languages is called
a creole language
Sexual dimorphism is
a difference between the sexes of a species in body size or shape
The Greek philosopher Aristotle proposed that all life was arranged in
a great chain of being
Biocultural evolutionary theory has led to questions about the merits of reductionist thinking, and how it tends to oversimplify. One of the more productive results of this critique has been the application in anthropology of
a holistic approach to evolution
A pidgin language is
a mixed language with a simplified grammar that people rarely learn as a mother tongue
Not all sites and materials are suitable for Carbon-14 dating. At which of the following sites would Carbon-14 dating be most appropriate?
a site in the Mississippi Delta, dated around 10,000 years old, with the presence of many contemporary trees (I think)
A mutation is
a slight, unpredictable variation in genetic code that occurs during reproduction
Researchers could conclude that a human ancestor had a higher percentage of meat in the diet based on the changes found in
a smaller gut size that requires high energy foods
Social Complexity is
a society that has many different parts organized into a single social system
According to anthropologist Sherry Ortner's analysis, the American flag is an example of
a summarizing symbol
The approach that uses head shape and skin color to categorize humans into races is called
a trait-based approach
A defining feature that defines humans is
a unique set of biological characteristics entirely different from all other primates
The idea that Ongee ancestors make tidal waves and earthquakes would be understood by an interpretive anthropologist as
a way of explaining how the world works
An evolutionary perspective on variations in physical traits reflects
adaptive changes
The term anthropoid refers to
all monkeys, apes and humans
Linguistic anthropologist Dennis Tedlock developed a new approach to the ethnography of speaking called ethnopoetics. What viewpoint does ethnopoetics assume?
all speech acts are performances
The major component of being human-bipedalism can, from an anatomical perspective, be either
allowing or enforcing
The skill of hunter-gatherers comes from
an extraordinary knowledge of their environment
The application of pastoral practices leads to both an increase in population and
an increase in social complexity
A key requirement for the formation of a complex society is
an increased intensity of food production
The development of what might be called true agriculture-the use of fertilizers or elaborations of technology-was most likely due to
an increased probability of shortages
Which of the following is not one of the ways that objects change over time?
an object always becomes less valuable and less significant as it ages and deteriorates over long periods of time
One of the limitations of the archaeological analysis of complexity is that
an object by itself cannot determine dynamics of wealth, power, or status
Both H. habilis and H. rudolfensis display a diverse combination of
ancestral and derived characteristics
Variations in body shape and size are quantified using
anthropometry
Anthropologists look at objects
as capable of conveying meaning
The evolution of the tail among New World monkeys reflects an adaptation to their environment and would be of interest to a
behavioral ecologist
The symbolic system of inheritance works through the establishment of
culture and language
if you were conducting a symbolic analysis of TV programs and wanting to identify a key scenario such as the Horatio Alger myth, which of the following would you focus on?
plots that are repeated in many of the programs that American viewers interpret as commonplace social experiences
Esther Boserup observed that farming was hard work and instead suggested that the motivation for agricultural practices came from
population growth
The discovery that layers of sediment deposited in a lake were due to erosion from higher altitudes, indicated to archaeologists that in the Tarascan empire
population growth led to severe degradation of the soil
The idea that embraces dynamic cultural processes and the idea that the observer of cultural processes can never see culture completely objectively represent
post-structuralism
which of the following is not an example of the ways humans vary biologically?
race
Among the Bonobo chimpanzees, social conflict is often resolved through sexual activity. This is a form of
reconciliation
If you were an archaeologist working on a site that you thought was previously inhabited but had been razed by farmers, only leaving flat farmland, which archaeologist method would be most suited for your work?
remote sensing
Chimpanzees can suffer from polio. If you wanted to develop a chimpanzee polio vaccine, you would likely discover that
research and testing on apes are tightly regulated by many governments because of their close similarity to humans
If you were interested in a past population's diet, what method of analysis would you be most likely to use on the artifacts available to you?
residue analysis
Anthropologists overcome ethnocentrism by
seeing matters from the point of view of another culture
Anthropologists, according to Stocking, look at objects in how many dimensions?
seven
Conflict resolution among Bonobo apes is often accomplished using
sex
A stoplight is a visual example of which of the following?
sign
The ability of African cichlids, a popular pet fish, to develop highly similar body shapes despite coming from two different and geographically distant environments is an example of
developmental bias
Jenny is an African American. She has been saving up for months for some designer shoes, but when she goes to purchase them, the cashiers at the department store call the police because they think she has stolen the credit card she is paying with. This is an act of
discrimination
Negative or unfair treatment because of his or her group membership or identity is
discrimination
When children in the United States reach a certain age, they often move out of their parents' home and into their own living space, something anthropologists refer to as
dispersal
Archaeologists today generally agree that most social systems
do not collapse but instead transform into other systems, retaining vestiges of their past
The "missing link"
does not actually exist
One striking difference between the social behavior found in common chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, and in bonobo chimpanzees, Pan paniscus, is that of
dominance relationships
Of the many reasons suggested for the abandonment of the Mayan city of Copán, one reason we can safely say was not part of the process was
drought
the way people incorporate material and social aspects of their world is referred to as
embodiment
The process of learning culture from a very young age is called
enculturation
The concept of costs and benefits is useful to understand
energy expenditure in an organism
The idea that organisms have an ideal form, and living versions are minor deviations from the ideal type is called
essentialism
If you were interested not only in how people are supposed to speak, but how people actually speak, what anthropological approach would you be most likely to adopt?
ethnography of speaking
What anthropological approach to language distinguishes the ways people actually speak from the ideal ways that people are supposed to speak?
ethnography of speaking
What is the study of how people classify things in the world called?
ethnoscience
If you wanted to understand the norms of a society, you would most likely focus on
everyday interactions
All humans are born with some culture.
false
Because of the widespread use of mass media today, sociolinguists have found increasing homogeneity in the use of language in the United States.
false
Behavioral ecology uses a comparative approach to evaluate differences among primates.
false
Countries find it relatively easy to decide what language its citizens will speak.
false
Gene flow is the movement of genetic material across different ecosystems.
false
The construction of an office building in New York in the 1990s that uncovered an early African American burial ground illustrates the complexities of
-the politics of archaeology -how artifacts are interpreted and history is told -the management of cultural sites
In her work on gender and language in the workplace, what did Robin Lakoff pay close attention to when analyzing speech?
-volume -intonation -tone
Edward Sapir urged cultural anthropologists to pay close attention to language during field research because
-we understand the material world through the language we speak -the "real world" is to a large extent unconsciously built from the language habits of a particular social group -language is a guide to "social reality"
It is easy to identify direct causal links between genes and behavior.
false
Material culture consists only of the objects made in preindustrial societies.
false
Most anthropologists believe in a single unified theory of culture.
false
Most primates rely extensively on their sense of smell.
false
Rich documentation describing the minute details of daily life exist for all of the city-states in the Middle East region, including Mesopotamia and Egypt.
false
Socially complex societies can range in population size from hundreds to hundreds of thousands.
false
The Human Genome Project has shown that, as is true among other large-bodied mammals, most human genetic variation exists between populations
false
The Neolithic Revolution happened only in the region we call the Middle East.
false
The appearance of culture was the event that signaled the arrival of modern humans
false
The first real protection for the preservation of archaeological sites in the United States was put in place in 1966.
false
The rise in obesity can only be explained by "thrifty genes" and genetic predispositions.
false
The shift to horticulture or simple farming typically increased the number of cultigens consumed by members of a community.
false
forensic scientists can identify the race of an individual's skull with 100% accuracy
false
unequal health outcomes between blacks and whites are not the result of how blacks have been racialized
false
All the characteristics listed below are common behavior patterns found in all primates except
father-son bond
One of the ways that peoples of Highland New Guinea stored their crops was by
feeding them to their herds of pigs
Robert Braidwood's "hilly flanks" hypothesis suggests that
few early cultigens were native to the Fertile Crescent lowlands
People who practice which way of life work the least?
foragers
The process through which bone and teeth slowly turn into stoned is called
fossilization
The theory of culture that proposes that cultural practices, beliefs, and institutions fulfill the psychological and physical needs of society is called
functionalism
Suppose you wanted to study the reasoning behind why men use a particular hair product to attract sexual partners. As a biological anthropologist, you might be very likely to examine this through the lens of
grooming
The word primate comes from the Latin for "of the first rank" and was the word Linnaeus used in his taxonomic system because
he took for granted the idea that humans were closer to divine powers
If you applied a behavioral ecology perspective to understanding a college student's dietary patterns, you would likely be most interested in
how much physical effort a student puts in to get food and how many calories they actually consume
If an archaeologist were to collaborate with a geologist and a geomorphologist, which project would they be most interested in working on together?
how prehistoric shifts in landscape affected human settlement patterns in Ireland
If Jakob Grimm, who developed what has come to be known as Grimm's law, were analyzing the historical relationships among the so-called dialects of Chinese (such as Cantonese and Mandarin), what data would he be looking for in his linguistic fieldwork?
how the speakers of each dialect pronounce different words with similar meanings in the several dialects
One of the key popular misunderstandings about the causes of obesity is
humans have a normal diet
One of the defining hypotheses about hunter-gatherer societies that changed after the "Man the Hunter" conference is that
hunting was not the defining feature of hunter-gatherer societies
Local colonized societies in the Americas helped in the development of
hybrid language forms
Early civilizations that depended on water resources gave rise to
hydraulic despotism
Your schooling has led you to believe that all assigned homework must be turned in on time. This is an example of
implicit enculturation
The key scenario differs from other kinds of symbols because it
implies how people should act
The gradual emergence of human cultural capacity over several million years began to
influence evolutionary processes among hominids
No one can completely "own the past," and this means, in part, that the past
is a cultural construction
One of the more important ways that anthropology contributes to the development of evolutionary theory is that
it challenges the biological reductionism of much evolutionary theory
Why do so many Americans prefer cereal for breakfast?
it has become the norm through social institutions, beliefs, power relations, and daily life
Anthropology's understanding of skin pigmentation emphasizes that
it is an adaptive response to ultraviolet light
How would a critical relativist explain Native American criticisms of cultural appropriation?
it is important to understand Native American claims from their point of view though it doesn't necessarily mean we should accept them as the only way to view the issue
The primary contrast that shaped thinking about complex societies was between the
material and the organizational aspects of society
Much of what we know about Neanderthals comes from
mitochondrial DNA studies
The Multiple dispersals model argues that
modern humans left African in multiple waves
Plasticity can be understood as not being Lamarckian because
modification happens before genetic changes appear that keep the change in place across generations
What is the study of grammatical categories, such as tense and word order, called?
morphology
The way in which anthropologists and archaeologists now view the material objects of a culture holds that all objects are
multidimensional
The first place where anthropologists studied objects and art were
museums
If you observed gradual changes in environmental temperature and, at the same time, observed that there were changes in the phenotype of a butterfly species over fifteen generations, which theory might best help explain what is going on?
natural selection
In what ways were principles of natural selection involved in the increasing size of food grains like corn, wheat, and barley?
natural selection was not involved because the processes involved humans selecting the best seeds
One of the side effects of increased food production is the generation of a surplus, something that helped give rise to
new social roles for food producers, typically specialist roles
if you applied the extended evolutionary theory synthesis to study the evolution of hominids, you would be most interested in
not sure of answer for this: options- a. a bottleneck in an australopithecine species b. gene flow between Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans c. the effects of predation on paranthropines d. how archaic humans modified their environments through fire and tools
The reality of race exists through marginalization, exploitation and stigma, as well as
not sure of answer: -the well-documented science behind racial classification -the extent of privilege the some groups have -innate differences between races -individual willpower
The significance of Ashley Montagu's writings about race was his observation that
not sure of exact answer: -(NOT) only "uncivilized" people believe in myths -(NOT) Franz Boas and his students were correct in their initial thinking about race -(MAYBE) race is a myth that shapes understanding how the world works -(MAYBE) biology and race are inherently linked
Archaeologists know that in the Tarascan empire there was a consolidation of state power because
objects found with the dead were being produced in areas controlled by the empire
Some anthropologists believe we should move beyond cultural relativism and adopt critical relativism, which is the idea that
one should only take a stance on a practice or belief after trying to understand it in its cultural context
Those who are eligible to make a claim under NAGPRA include
only federally recognized Native American groups or tribes
Molecular and morphological knowledge of living humans and apes supports the idea that humans are more closely related to chimpanzees and gorillas than we are to
orangutans
Jared Diamond argues that the cause of societal collapse is due to
overshooting of the natural resource base
When anthropologists study the way people use language in real settings rather than as a set of grammatical rules, what are they are focusing on?
parole
Norms are stable because
people learn them when they are young
One consequence of sedentism is
permanent social inequality (I think)
what term refers to the structure of speech sounds?
phonology
Scott Van Keuren analyzed brushwork sequences in decorative styles of the pottery of the Southwestern United States. His research found that changes in style could be explained as evidence that
societies with different original styles had moved to the same area leading to styles derived from several original styles
When considering the question "do apes have culture?" anthropologists typically emphasize that culture is more than the transmission of social behaviors across generations and cannot be understood by
studying behavior alone
The alphabet and numbers are examples of
symbols
Several hundred years after the Maya abandoned their ancient cities, Spanish observers reported a social hierarchy and inherited nobility that seemed related to what existed in the large, ancient, urban centers. This fact suggests that
the Maya simply transformed
NAGPRA is
the North American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
The genetic dimension of obesity is related to
the ability to accumulate and store energy in our bodies
One advantage that allowed early humans to be effective persistent hunters is
the ability to sweat
The recent discovery of the Tarascan empire provides evidence of social complexity through
the analysis of trash deposits associated with different residence types
Philology is
the approach that compares ancient texts and documents to analyze long-term linguistic change
cultural determinism
the belief that the culture in which we are raised determines who we are at emotional and behavioral levels. This supports the theory that environmental influences dominate who we are instead of biologically inherited traits.
Anthropologists often study primates to broaden understanding of
the evolution of social behavior in humans
Jared Diamond argues that cities and states don't last because
the fundamental cause of collapse is environmental
The word "primate" was originally used to denote
the higher order of humans in the chain of being
The emergence of evolutionary thinking happened in part when certain key figures recognized
the importance of the great chain of being
If Benjamin Whorf were trying to find further proof that grammar shapes the way people perceive the world, which of the following would not be a focus of his research?
the in-depth analysis of the grammars of European languages
Bicultural evolution is the term used to describe how modern humans arrived on the scene, and it encompasses
the interaction of biology and culture over time
Variations in skin pigmentation can be traced to
the latitude where one's ancestors spent the most time
Mutation, natural selection, gene flow, and genetic drift are the four key parts of
the modern synthesis
Traditions are
the most enduring and ritualized aspects of a culture
Gene flow is
the movement of genetic material (DNA) within and between populations
Australopithecines most likely represent
the origins of human lineage
A crucial limitation of cost-benefit analysis in primates is
the oversimplification of population dynamics and complexity
One result of larger, denser population centers is
the rapid spread of a disease
The power dimension of an object reveals the underlying nature of
the relationship between the source of the object and its holder
skin "color" is
the result of melanin as a protective tint from the sun
Repatriation is
the return of human remains and artifacts to their descendants
In anthropology, a population or group of populations within a species that has measurable, defining biological characteristics is known as
the scientific concept of race
Foraging is
the search for edible things
We can apply the ideas of Robert Carneiro's argument about the role of war in a complex society to the Tarascan data by looking at
the shift in mortuary objects as a reflection of the consolidation of power
Domestication is
the taming of animals for human use, such as work or as food
What method establishes the date or period of an organic artifact or feature from the relative proportions of radioactive carbon to nonradioactive isotopes?
Carbon-14 dating
The emergence of increased cultural capacity in H. erectus can be seen in their changed diet, tools, and
the use of fire and cooking
One theory about the relationship between global warming and the shift from foraging to food production holds that
the warming that took place after the last ice age made the environment more habitable
One of the things that the analysis of skirt length conducted by Richardson and Kroeber reveals is
the way objects change meaning over time
The social processes that make race part of the natural order of things by producing theories, schemes, and typologies about human differences is
the way race is naturalized
If you wanted to study pair-bonding among bonobos as a window into understanding the evolution of human pair-bonding, you might encounter some difficulty because
the wide range of marriage and kinship patterns among humans undermines any easy comparisons between the species
what is the strongest evidence that Neanderthals had rich symbolic lives?
their use of non-functional material goods such as jewelry
how do contemporary variations in body size and mass compare with the variability among early hominids?
there is less variation now in both sexual dimorphism and size and mass
Which scholar believes that language is the symbolic guide to culture?
Edward Sapir
One possible reason that the Tarahumara Indians in Mexico are able to run vast distances without injury is that
they do not use shoes that interrupt the action of the foot arch
Activities that are biologically based, such as eating and sleeping, are universally the same for all humans.
False
The taxonomic ordering of Homo erectus has been completely resolved through careful fossil analysis.
False
The American anthropologist responsible for the concept of historical particularism was named
Franz Boas
If a functionalist were to explain why the teacher lectures from the front of the classroom to students organized in neatly arranged chairs, she or he would emphasize that
this way of teaching organizes people to promote shared cultural goals
Why is AIDS having a more dramatic effect on populations in sub-Saharan African than in North America and Europe?
In sub-Saharan Africa, people have limited access to medicine that makes AIDS a manageable condition
One of the important ways that genetic material is moved between different populations, such as through gene flow, is
through the choice of a sexual partner
Phylogeny helps us
trace the evolutionary history of a species
the most enduring and ritualized aspects of a culture
traditions
According to Edward Sapir, language is the symbolic guide to culture.
true
Although language is one of the most rule-bound aspects of human culture, it is also one of the least conscious.
true
Ashley Montagu would disagree with any scientific concept of race
true
Cahokia's vast complex of mounds and ceremonial sites initially suggested that it was the center of a vast empire. What is surprising is that this socially complex state did not last very long before it was abandoned.
true
Clyde Kluckhohn argued that both biological and cultural aspects of humanity must be seen as a continuum of small changes.
true
Cultural appropriation involves relationships of power.
true
Culture consists of the collective processes that make the artificial seem natural.
true
Genetically speaking, humans are a remarkably homogeneous species: there is far greater variation within human groups than there is between them.
true
Many evolutionary processes interact to affect the organism.
true
One of the most powerful tools used to analyze archaic humans has been through use of mitochondrial DNA
true
One surprising discovery about hunter-gatherer lives was that they worked only a few hours a week.
true
Only federally recognized Native American tribes can request repatriation through NAGPRA.
true
Race can become biology, by shaping people's biological outcomes due to disparities in access to certain kinds of healthcare and diets, exposure to certain kinds of diseases, and other factors that can make people either sick or healthy.
true
Ruralization is the process that leads to a contested space in the country located between different city-states.
true
The complex social system on the north coast of Papua New Guinea precludes monopolistic behaviors because the network is so diffuse.
true
Which of the following is NOT a feature of the generalized foraging model?
unquestioned obedience to the leadership of the band's headman by members of the band
Were you to visit the New Guinea Highlands, you might be offered a meal consisting of cooked pork and sweet potatoes, which demonstrates
use of low-intensity agricultural practices that nevertheless can provide significant food resources
Darwin and Wallace recognized is that change over time is linked to
variation
The core idea of Darwin's and Wallace's ideas-descent with modifications via natural selection-is intimately tied to what larger force?
variation
What do archaeologists do when conducting ground surveys?
walk over a specific area and collect any artifacts found on the ground
From the anthropological perspective, culture, paired with language, makes our species distinct because
we are able to communicate knowledge that is inaccessible to other organisms and disseminate that knowledge
In evolutionary terms, humans are distinct from other primates with respect to their ability to use language because
we can speak using a larynx
The recent reinterpretation of ancient empires has led archaeologists to conclude that many such empires were actually little more than
well-organized estates that served the needs of a temple
what basic assumption do anthropologists question in the debate over Senator Elizabeth Warren's claims to Native American ancestry?
Native American ancestry can b e ascertained through genetic testing
Some of the early resistance to NAGPRA came from anthropologists and archaeologists because they felt that
Native American prehistory was part of human heritage
For anthropologists, the value of an object is an important way to understand
who has wealth and social status
Does race have biological consequences?
yes, because of racism
Which is a primary method for archaeologists?
-regional, aerial, and satellite surveys -visual documentation -ground surveys
Koko and Washo were two primates who had learned
American Sign Language
Who was responsible for the theory of social evolution?
E. B. Tylor
Which group traded iron tools for sex?
Tahitians
An assemblage is
a collection of objects found together
The rich, fine-grained soils deposited by rivers and streams is known as
alluvial soil
What material do archaeologists prefer to use for Carbon-14 dating?
charcoal
Which of the following would an archaeologist do before digging test pits?
conduct a ground survey
Anthropologists who study human biocultural evolution believe that evolution
continues in all organisms until they are extinct
The process of managing and preserving prehistoric and historic heritage, usually through the collection of material objects, is referred to as
cultural resource management
The recent upsurge in migration due to refugees seeking safety from war zones provides biological anthropologists an easy opportunity to observe and document
gene flow
For anthropologists the most important aspect of any object is
how it exists within a set of human social relationships
Hominine is
human species
Charles Darwin avoided use of the term "evolution" because
it might suggest progress or improvement
What is the significance of tubers as a very early cultigen in the New Guinea Highlands?
it shows us that early cultigens can be something other than grains
Examples of social institutions are
kinship, marriage, and farming
A defining characteristic that paleoanthropologist use to place a specimen into the genus Homo is
large cranial capacity
The dynamics of a complex society ensure that
lifestyles of the elites benefit from the labor of non-elites
An important distinction between hunter-gatherers today and those of the past is
linkage to sedentary agricultural societies through trade and other social ties
Early anthropologists considered the environments of hunter-gatherer societies to be harsh, and their methods of subsistence and technology to be simple, crude, and primitive, reinforcing
long-held cultural stereotypes
Two key characteristics of a primate are
manual dexterity and visual acuity
Why is pottery analysis so important to archaeological practice?
not sure of answer!! it's not "pottery was only owned by elites, so it is an important marker of social stratification"
When anthropologists look at an object according to the inequality reflected in its production, in which dimension are they looking at it?
power
Trade models of state formation focus on the people doing the trading work - traders - as well as the people
providing military protection
If you were a paleoanthropologist looking for an ancient primate fossil, what would you do to increase the likelihood of your success?
review satellite imagery surveys
Olduwan tools are
rocks modified to produce sharp flakes and edged choppers
Paleoanthropologists believe that the predominant diet of our earliest omnivorous ancestors consisted mostly of
roots, tubers, and fruits
which o the following groups of people were instrumental in the development of categorizing humans into distinct races?
scientists
Much of our knowledge of the ancient Mayan empire comes from the careful study of
stelae
Genotype is
the genetic components of an organism
Biocultural evolution is
the interaction of cultural capacity and biology to meet selective demands
Ethnoprimatology focuses on
the interface between human and ape communities
Complex societies ensure that
the labor of non-elites benefits the elites
racism is
the repressive practices, structures, beliefs, and representations that uphold racial categories and social inequality
Culture is uniquely human.
true
Most people are unaware of the structure of a language until someone speaking it makes a mistake.
true
The stereotype that Tahitian women were sexually promiscuous emerged almost overnight after the arrival of Captain Samuel Wallis in 1767, when Tahitians recognized that the British had iron that the crew would exchange for sexual favors.
true
The way in which most people incorporate the social and material aspects of their lives into biological experiences and outcomes is known as embodiment.
true
Norms are
typical patterns of behavior viewed as rules of how things should be done
Sedentism is
year-round settlement in a particular place
A cross-cultural perspective on eating insect larvae would reveal
-the cultural constructions of insects as food -that eating insects can be adaptive -the artificiality of taste
Anthropologists Alfred Kroeber and Jane Richardson made a detailed study of skirt length over the 300 years prior to World War II. Which of the following characterizes their conclusions?
-skirt length changed in regular cycles -women consistently sought to be fashionable -many aspects of women's dress styles changed during every period
Which of the following is an example of cultural appropriation?
-New Age religion's imitation of Indian spirituality and rituals -the use of the Zia Pueblo sun symbol on the New Mexico state flag -white children "playing Indian"
Which of the following is a contributing factor to the development of creoles, pidgins, and other hybrid forms of language?
-commerce -colonialism -globalization
Socioecological pressures are forces that modify primate behaviors and can include all of the following except
-competition -nutrition -locomotion
what is an embodied consequence of being a racial minority?
-higher rated of hypertension -shorter life expectancy -low in fact birth weights
When anthropologists look at an object according to the dimension of history, they are referring to
-how interpretations of the object have changed over time -where and by whom it was made -how the object was produced
what is the cause of clinal variations
-intermingling between populations -historical movement -gene flow
Cultural determinism is unproductive for cultural analysis because
-it explains all human action as the product of culture alone -it denies the influence of factors like physical environment and biology on humans -it can justify atrocities
The Canadian government helps preserve the use of French by requiring all official documents to be written in both English and French. The provincial government of the Canadian province of Quebec has implemented further regulations that require that signs have French letters larger than English letters. Why is the size of letters important?
-it is impossible to control what language ordinary Canadians use, but they can evaluate and distinguish the size of letters on signs -the regulations themselves give French Canadians a feeling that they are as important as English speakers, even though they are in the minority -symbolically, the size of the letters suggests the importance of the language
When behavioral ecologists study socioecological pressures on primates, they are primarily interested in
-locomotion -nutrition -predation
Ethnocentrism
-means you think your culture is superior to others -presents a major problems for anthropologists -is a common feature of culture
Some of the evidence for very early hominid like ancestors dates to at least
22 mya
You are an archaeologist with a site in the African Rift Valley and you think that you have discovered evidence that dates from 150,000 years ago. What dating method would you use to further your investigations?
K-Ar dating of volcanic rock
Despite the evidence of escalating warfare, excessive population growth, drought, and the failings of the ruling elite, the overwhelming evidence about the Mayan empire suggests that
Mayans did not disappear, they simply changed their social system
The combination of bipedalism, increased cranial capacity, changed diet and tool use, and expanding social relations all suggest that among the first humans
biology and culture interacted to shape their evolution
Evolution of human sleep patterns was greatly affected by
bipedalism
Anthropometry measures
body parameters to assess physical variation
What material would be most suitable for Carbon-14 dating?
bone fragments
A taxonomic structure is one that
both names and classifies all organisms according to a system
Grooming relationships among primates serve to
build and maintain affiliations
Which of the following is NOT a reasonable account used to explain why humans started raising their own food by domesticating plants and animals?
by the end of the ice age, human brains were finally large enough and humans smart enough to learn that if they planted seeds they would grow
Animals communicate through
call systems
The division of humans into African, Asian, American, and European races is
categorization based on geographic origin
Evidence for the increased capacity in early humans is seen in
changed diets, tools, and increased cooperation
one major change in human existence that resulted from the use of fire is
changes in cooking techniques
Morphological and molecular evidence suggests that
chimpanzees, gorillas, and humans are similar
One of the reasons that today's agricultural dietary practices seemingly restrict the variety of food choices stems from the existence of
complex patterns of food taboos
race is a
concept that organizes people into groups on the basis of specific physical traits that are thought to reflect fundamental and innate differences