Cultural Anthropology 003 (Chapters 1-14)

The term "biosociality" is used by medical anthropologists

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Those anthropologists who emphasize how particular social and political structures distribute human suffering systematically and unevenly within a given society can be said to

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Which of the following is not one of the main subdisciplines of anthropology in North America?

Environmental anthropology.

Culture shock may be described as

a. A feeling of confusion, alienation, and depression that can result from the psychological stress that occurs during the first weeks or months of an immersion in a culture different from one's own.

Most Western-trained physicians would adhere to which form of medical knowledge and practice?

a. Biomedicine.

Which of the following terms refers to the political conquest of one society where, through capitalist practices, indigenous ways of life were altered forever?

a. Colonialism

Most North Americans know and share a form of descent found among the Ju/'hoansi of the Kalahari Desert. This form of descent may be described as

a. Creating a group that forms around Ego and includes all people linked to Ego through kin of both sexes.

Which of the following statements about culture from the perspective of the evolution of our species is not true?

a. Culture appeared with the arrival of Homo sapiens.

Cases given in the text for understanding power and national identity such as the Tamil of Sri Lanka and Mayan farmers in Guatemala are used to illustrate that

a. Establishing a successful hegemony on the part of the state was a difficult process involving everyday struggles with no certain outcome.

Sicknesses that are believed to be unique to particular cultural groups

a. Have been called culture-bound syndromes.

What term refers to minimal units of meaning or sound contrasts that make a difference in a language?

a. Morpheme.

Metacommunication

a. Provides information about the relationship between those who are engaged in communication.

Anthropologist Sherry Ortner points out that the American flag focuses the attention of Americans on a complex collection of ideals and feelings ranging from patriotism and free enterprise to imperialism and racism. As such, the flag may be said to be a(n)

a. Summarizing symbol,

Ethnography is

a. The fieldwork aspect of cultural anthropology.

The text provides a case study of Muslim headscarves worn by some women in public schools and the debate surrounding the French law meant to ban their use. Which statement best describes what this case study is meant to illustrate in the text?

a. The particular history of the French state and thus what secularism means in the French republic today.

Anthropologists since Franz Boas have recognized and studied the significance of cultural borrowing. More recently, the emphasis has been on how cultural forms and practices are borrowed and modified. Which of the following terms does not refer to aspects of this process of modification in borrowed cultural forms and practices?

a. Transnationalism.

Some medical anthropologists refer to the combined effects on a population of more than one disease where these effects are intensified through the action of one or more of a variety of stressful environmental factors as

b. A syndemic.

Anthropologists have long paid attention to relatedness believed by the group in question to be based on shared substance and its transmission. People who are believed to share substance fit within systematized ways of accounting for and labeling relations. For decades, studies conducted by anthropologists on these systems wrongly considered that

b. All societies would recognize the same basic biological relationships between mothers and fathers, children and parents, and sisters and brothers.

During times when groups face domination and sweeping changes, typically because of the actions of outsiders such as colonizing power, they may undergo what is known as revitalization. Which of the following correctly describes what this term means?

b. An intentional and organized attempt to certain members of a group during a time of crisis to create a more satisfying culture.

Cross-cultural research has long demonstrated that sex differences based on physical features do not allow prediction of the social roles that males or females will occupy in any given society. This is why anthropologists

b. Are interested in the cultural construction of beliefs and behaviors that are considered appropriate for each sex.

A small, egalitarian group that does not engage in agriculture but rather depends on wild food sources is known as a

b. Band.

The anthropologist Ian Condry studied the apparent expansion of a popular cultural form from the United States into another part of the world by exploring hip-hop in Japan. Condry's research suggests that

b. Because of cultural values regarding the need for group harmony, lyrics by Japanese rappers that emphasize individual identity are considered provocative.

Anthropologist Eric Wolf describes how it has been widely assumed that the indigenous communities of the non-Western world were "people without history." Which of the following choices does not represent a negative consequence of this view?

b. Certain tribes are understood to have been created in the contact between these populations and Europeans.

In caste societies such as India,

b. Different occupations are associated with degrees of cleanliness.

According to James Scott, everyday forms of peasant resistance such as those that he studied in Malaysia may entail such things as

b. Foot-dragging, slander, and sabotage.

We could expect that a medical anthropologist who follows a primarily interpretive approach in his or her research would tend to focus on

b. How a person afflicted with AIDS, for example, would make sense of his or her own suffering in ways that reflect his or her particular cultural beliefs and practices.

Karl Marx once wrote, "Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted by the past." Marx's assertion is taken as an expression of which of the following conditions?

b. Humans, acting alone and in groups, have at least some capacity to exercise control over the course of their lives.

Holism is generally understood by anthropologists as a perspective on the human condition

b. In which human beings are seen as shaped by both biology and culture

The field of economic anthropology

b. Includes some anthropologists who assume that individuals are first and foremost interested in their own well-being.

What is the term for those who work closely with anthropologists in their fieldwork in order to provide them with insights into their way of life?

b. Informants.

Which of the following is true about the reflexive approach to fieldwork?

b. It encourages researchers to consider the effects that their values, biases, and theoretical orientations might have on data collection and analysis.

Which of the following statements is not true of bridewealth?

b. It increases the likelihood of a marriage ending in divorce.

Anthropology is described as holistic because

b. It is an integrated and comparative approach to human diversity.

Anthropologists find that in most societies marriage is a lasting arrangement. They also recognize that

b. Its durability varies from society to society.

Anthropology is distinguished from other social sciences by

b. Its holistic and comparative approach to human diversity.

Which of the following best describes the culturally particular, selective interpretation of the common human experiences of mating, birth, and nurturance?

b. Kinship.

Neolocal residence describes a married couple

b. Living in a place of their own choosing.

In a/an _________________, the speaker can create new sounds or messages by combining two or more existing sounds or words.

b. Open system of communication.

Myths that are taken to be indisputable truths may be explicitly codified such that deviation from the established code or order is treated harshly. The term that best describes the established interpretation of key myths to which societal members may be required to adhere is

b. Orthodoxy.

What is the position generally held in a traditional positivist approach to research?

b. Research should produce objective knowledge about reality applicable to cases in all times and places.

Which of the following choices would not create a true statement about ethnography as described in the text? For most contemporary cultural anthropologists, ethnographic fieldwork

b. Should ideally be conducted among groups that are culturally and geographically distant.

The anthropological study of sports may be said to have value because

b. Sports can reflect the basic cultural values of the setting in which they are performed.

Which of the following statements best describes how the anthropologist Eric Luke Lassiter characterizes how the Kiowa people dealt with the influx of Christian missionaries?

b. The Kiowa "kiowanized" Christianity.

Syncretism is _____________.

b. The borrowing of beliefs and rituals by one religion from another.

Which of the following is not true of the understanding that contemporary anthropologists have of kinship?

b. The principles of kinship serve as an invariant code for determining relations.

Which of the following statements is true of rites of passage?

b. The sense of oneness created among people within the ritual practices of rites of passage can be dangerous.

Although typological understandings of human variation have provided a useful means of comparison between groups, many such approaches have been rejected because typologies have offered no logical way of addressing social change. The anthropologist Sally Falk Moore states that today's anthropologists follow a new approach. Which of the following statements best describes this approach?

b. The study and comparison of ongoing social and cultural processes as they unfold in different social and cultural settings.

In some traditionally stateless societies, power may be understood as an entity that exists apart from and independent of human beings, unlike in other cases, where power is seen as produced and accumulated through the interactions of humans. Belief in a power independent of human beings means that a. Because power does not belon

b. These societies tend to emphasize consensus arrived at through physical intimidation and coercion as an appropriate means to decide issues affecting the entire group.

Which of the following statements about berdaches is not true?

b. True berdaches are biological males who have assumed many of the gender roles normally assigned to women.

According to the text, most anthropologists hold that race refers to

b. What is in essence a statistical statement about the occurrence of physical traits.

Based on the discussion in the text, we can reasonably conclude that economic anthropologists are interested in two basic questions about society. Which of the following best describes one of those organizing questions?

b. What motivates people in any given society to produce, distribute, and consume as they do.

The experience of ethnographic fieldwork changes both the anthropologist and his or her informants. Given the discussion in the text, which of the following is the most plausible effect of fieldwork on informants?

b. Working with an anthropologist makes informants aware of themselves in ways that may be both unexpected and uncomfortable.

From reading the chapter on medical anthropology, we can see that this area of focus reflects the general anthropological understanding that we must consider a broad range of factors when trying to explain the health challenges of different groups. We could describe researchers with this understanding as having

c. A biocultural synthesis.

Taken together, the health-related beliefs, knowledge, and practices of a cultural group are

c. An ethnomedical system.

Matriarchies

c. Are not persuasively documented in the ethnographic record.

Which of the following statements about art and individual artists in non-Western societies is not true?

c. Artists in these societies tend to be socially marginalized and out of the cultural mainstream.

Although anthropologists have varied in their definitions, a holistic view of cultural relativism suggests that we

c. Attempt to understand the behavior but not necessarily excuse it.

Generalized reciprocity

c. Characterizes the exchange found in egalitarian societies.

Which of the following statements regarding culture as described in the text is not true?

c. Culture is passed on genetically

What is the term for a social assemblage whose members claim a common ancestry?

c. Descent group.

What term for group identity emphasizes the movement of people from a single homeland to many places around the world?

c. Diaspora.

The tendency to view one's own way of life as natural or correct is known by anthropologists as

c. Ethnocentrism.

Within a highly stratified society with two different ethnic groups possessing vastly different degrees of economic and political power, the ruling group enacts laws that prohibit those of the lowest group from using their language and practicing many of their customs. Which of the following terms may be used to describe this practice?

c. Ethnocide.

Which statement about globalization is untrue as described in the text?

c. Globalization is an irreversible, totalizing process.

The formal structure of a language consisting of all linguistic observations about meaningful units of sounds and the rules or principles of making phrases and sentences is called its

c. Grammar.

The concept of ____________ can be used to explain why people submit to power even without coercion.

c. Hegemony.

Anthropologists have argued that caste societies may be found

c. In several regions of the world, including Hindu India, central Africa, and Asia.

Which is a characteristic of ethnography?

c. It involves intimate, face-to-face encounters with people.

Which of the following features is not characteristic of band societies?

c. Meat forms the majority of their diet.

Although in the years following World War II many former European colonies obtained their independence, leaders in these countries realized that coming out from under the political and economic dominance of former colonizers would not be easy. What is the term that refers to persisting exploitative relationships between European nations and their former colonies?

c. Neocolonialism.

The methodology that most distinguishes anthropology from other social sciences is

c. Participant-observation.

In a kin-ordered mode of production,

c. Production, distribution, and consumption are social relations first and foremost.

A large-scale, centralized society that is hierarchically arranged such that different groups have unequal access to wealth, power, and prestige is known as a

c. State.

The text defines the general term "power" as a "transformative capacity." Which of the following forms of power organizes social settings and controls the allocation of social labor?

c. Structural power.

In the first half of the twentieth century, British social anthropologists were especially interested in how particular social and cultural forms work every day so as to reproduce enduring aspects of the social forms in a given society such as the political, economic, or kinship systems. What term best describes this focus?

c. Structural-functionalism.

The linguistic relativity principle generally holds that

c. The grammatical categories of different languages pattern thought and culture, thus leading speakers to think about the world in certain ways.

Anthropologist A.F.C. Wallace proposed a set of minimal categories of religious behavior that describe practices usually associated with religious belief and practice. Which of the following statements does not describe one of these categories?

c. The rejection of scientific explanations of natural forces.

The biological anthropologist Frank Livingstone has declared, "There are no races, there are only clines." Which statement best describes the significance of Livingstone's statement?

c. The trait distributions that clines map do not coincide in ways that would allow for distinct human subpopulations.

In working among the Dobe Ju/'hoansi of the central Kalahari Desert of southern Africa, anthropologist Richard Lee's research helped to challenge a longstanding Western stereotype regarding foraging peoples. Lee's important contribution in this sense was in finding that such groups

c. Were able to collect substantial amounts of high-caloric food in relatively few hours per week.

As discussed in the text, which of the following statements best captures the distinction between human rights and the rights of cultures (including the right to culture)?

c. Whereas human rights are applied universally to all human beings, certain cultural rights are bestowed to distinct groups.

In his study of the different language habits of women and men conducted on the island of Sumba in Indonesia among the Weyewa people, the linguistic anthropologist Joel Kuipers found that

c. Whereas men were expected to know the history of their kin group, women's speech was intended to express and arouse immediate and potent responses to misfortune.

Members of the same society make use of shared assumptions about the nature of the world and their place in it that they use to interpret everyday experiences and make sense of their lives. We can also say that they have a _________ in common.

c. Worldview.

Most anthropologists share all of the following except

d. A biostatistical orientation

Not only the means of production but also the relations of production must be perpetuated through the reproduction of society from generation to generation. Which of the following is not true of this social reproduction as discussed in the text?

d. Access to resources is determined by the spirit of enterprise that drives the economy forward.

Which of the following is the term used to describe the separation experienced by workers between their own sense of themselves and their personal identities and the labor that they must do to earn the wages necessary for everyday life?

d. Alienation.

Which of the following correctly describes the anthropological comparison of processes?

d. All of the above are correct.

Which of the following observations about polygynous families is false?

d. All of the above are true.

Although human sexuality varies widely from culture to culture, based on ethnographic evidence, we can most easily assert that

d. All societies regulate sexual conduct.

Which of the following statements about the "culture area studies" movement attributed to Franz Boas and his students in the United States do you find incorrect based on the description provided in the text?

d. Although Boas was sure that a classificatory system of universal stages was not possible, he nevertheless held that borrowing between groups could not lead any one group to skip an evolutionary step.

Which of the following statements is not given in the chapter as a way of understanding the importance of play to human groups?

d. Because play is based on the metaphor "Let's make believe," its role in society is to maintain the status quo.

Western biomedicine is understood to likely reject sorcery as a cause of illness because

d. Both b and c.

Early political anthropologists assumed that without the organizing power of the state, anarchy would create a "war of all against all," as stated by the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes. Later understandings of societies without states concluded that

d. Cases like the Azandes' beliefs in magic and witchcraft illustrated how a society could have organizational power that depended not on state coercion but rather on persuasion.

The comparative study of two or more groups of people, basic to the subfield of cultural anthropology, is called

d. Ethnology.

The concept of __________ is meant to address those practices of Western nation-states developed in the nineteenth century that aimed to create an ordered, prosperous society through exercising power by counting people, measuring their physical attributes, and shaping their reproductive behaviors.

d. Governmentality.

Communicative competence is a term intended to convey

d. How adult speakers must not only follow grammatical rules but also choose their words and conversation topics in a way that is appropriate to social roles and context.

Anthropologists describe human beings as biocultural organisms for all of the following reasons except

d. Human culture is determined by genetic traits.

A repetitive social practice composed of sequences of symbolic activities that may include activities such as spoken word, dancing, singing, and the use of certain physical objects is known as

d. Ritual.

The anthropological understanding of race as a social category differs from the notion of biological race in that

d. Social race is a cultural construction that is based on arbitrary distinctions.

Economic inequality is likely greatest among individuals in which of the following societies?

d. The United States.

Which of the following statements does not reflect reasons given in the text for being concerned about how religion is defined and used as a term by anthropologists?

d. The concept of a supernatural world is necessarily ethnocentric.

Although for at least the past half-century many anthropologists have made the distinction between "Culture" and "cultures," the plural use of cultures with a lowercase "c" has been challenged. Which of the following statements does not describe an element of the argument against this distinction?

d. The distinction ignores the fact that "Culture" deals exclusively with the arts and the elite of a given society.

Which of the following best describes what anthropologists have found to be the most common criteria used for distinguishing kin cross-culturally?

d. The generation to which relatives belong.

What is a mode of production?

d. The historically particular set of social relations that are organized to produce the labor required to fulfill a society's subsistence and energy needs.

Victor Turner's research on rites of passage concentrated on a period of transition within these rites. Which of the following is not a reason given for the significance of this transitional period?

d. The lack of ambiguity found in this stage is essential to the process of reaggregation into society.

Which of the following is not a reason noted in the text for why members of a given society may submit to institutionalized power?

d. The principle of free agency suggests that all people will strategically support those in power so as to increase their own dominance.

Linguistic anthropologists are interested in the study of language ideology because

d. These ideologies become markers of struggles between social groups.

Although the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski was able to provide an explanation of social practices in particular cultures by relating them to basic human needs that these practices functioned to fulfill, his approach did not explain why all societies did not share the same patterns of consumption. Which of the following best describes the approach of a later generation of anthropologists to this shortcoming?

d. They extended Malinowski's focus on basic human needs by adding the important dimension of gendered divisions of labor.

The practice of states to include cultural features of subordinate ethnic groups within nationalist ideologies and traditions to allow these groups to identify with and feel included within the nation and its agendas is known as

d. Transformist hegemony.

Which of the following is not an essential aspect of ethnopragmatics as a particular form of language study?

d. Understanding that language ideologies are markers of struggles between social groups.

The text uses the example of traditional ideas of masculinity in Nicaragua, or what has been called machismo, to illustrate which of the following points regarding cultural differences in the interpretation of sexual acts?

d. What is considered homosexual practice is understood differently in diverse societies.

The changing historical contexts described in the text ranging from colonialism to neocolonialism have shaped how anthropologists have devised theories to explain variation among human groups. Which of the following does not describe one of the important facts taken into consideration by contemporary anthropologists?

e. A desire by non-Western groups to reject Western ways is demonstrated in their lack of organized religion and sophisticated technology.

Which of the following is not found within the context of market exchange?

e. All of the above are found within the context of market exchange.

Which of the following statements about religion does not reflect a position taken by anthropologists as discussed in the text?

e. All of the above reflect positions taken by anthropologists.

According to the text, ethnicity is best understood as something that

e. All of the above.

Anthropological criticism of modernization theory would likely include which of the following positions?

e. All of the above.

Anthropologists emphasize the importance of coming to know the key metaphors that underlie the worldview of a society because

e. All of the above.

Based on the discussion of globalization in the text, which of the following factors are responsible for the fact that most nation-states are not culturally homogeneous?

e. All of the above.

Globalization is best defined by

e. All of the above.

Intersectionality suggests that

e. All of the above.

Language loss is considered a fundamentally important issue by many anthropologists and linguists who strive to preserve or even revive threatened languages with few native speakers. Which of the following is not among the issues faced in these efforts at language revitalization?

e. All of the above.

Marcia Inhorn's work among Egyptian men challenges what she describes as an "essentializing and deeply vilifying" stereotype of Middle Eastern men by

e. All of the above.

The jati or localized caste groups of India

e. All of the above.

Which of the following statements about multiculturalism is true?

e. All of the above.

Which of the following statements best reflects the anthropological understanding of human sexuality as discussed in the text?

e. All of the above.

Which of the following statements represents a position taken by anthropologists regarding gender inequality?

e. All of the above.

According to the text, which of the following could be considered true concerning heteronormativity?

e. Both a and c are true.

Arguments that pit understandings of human rights against culture depend on basic assumptions including which of the following statements?

e. Both a and c.

Medical anthropology is a biocultural field because

e. Both b and c.

The ritual function of a birthday party in the United States may be described by all of the following statements except:

e. Children are taught that the individual is not as important as the group.

Which of the following is NOT a claim made about culture by most anthropologists?

e. Culture evolves through a series of stages.

An anthropologist who uses cultural data to inform public policy decisions regarding plans for a public housing project in southern Ohio may best be described as

e. Doing applied anthropology.

Which of the following is not one of the typical field techniques of ethnography mentioned in the text?

e. Double-blind studies.

Acquiring culture through a learning process as individuals grow up as a member of their own cultural group is called

e. Enculturation.

The anthropologist Aihwa Ong, working among diaspora communities of elite Chinese families, developed the notion of ______________ to refer to the self-serving strategies used by contemporary professionals and others to both avoid and benefit from the policies of different nation-states.

e. Flexible citizenship.

Which of the following statements about ethnocentrism is true?

e. It is the tendency to view your own culture as superior and to apply its values in judging the behavior and beliefs of people in other cultures.

Which of the following is a uniquely anthropological fieldwork method?

e. None of the above

All of the following statements about Aihwa Ong's study of wealthy Chinese merchant families are true except:

e. Ongoing obligations to one's lineage were essential to establishing a foothold within new social, cultural, and economic conditions.

Which of the following statements about shamans and priests is not true?

e. Shamans enter their role as religious practitioner for personal development.

A relatively new approach to ethnography is known as multisited fieldwork. Which of the following is not given in the text as a likely reason for the development of this approach?

e. Using more than one site allows the researcher to provide control groups for the purpose of cross-cultural analysis.

Systemic study of the production, transmission, and reception of speech sounds is

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