Anthropology Exam 1
Linguistic anthropologists traditionally study
(a) how our mouths form words (b) all of the answers are correct(c) how our language evolved (d) how indigenous people classify their social worlds (all answers are correct)
The application of the comparative method in his research in Papua New Guinea led coauthor Robert Welsch to focus on
(a) published and unpublished accounts of mask collectors who visited different villages(b) all of the answers are correct (c) interviews of village elders in different villages (d) museum collections (all answers are correct)
When did anthropology emerge as an academic discipline
1800s
Jonathan Marks notes that while we do have a 98% similarity in DNA to chimpanzees, this is not what it seems because between different human populations
98% similarity is a statement about chemical structures of the DNA, not necessarily the actual function of the genes.
Genetic drift
A change in genetic variation across generations due to random factors.
Gregor Mendel's findings about inheritance among pea plants stemmed from what key ability that he possessed?
Ability to observe closely
The example of dogs and wolves being able to breed even though they are different species underscores what important aspect of our approach to evolutionary theory?
Ambiguity is part of our own taxonomic system
Symbol
An object, idea, image, figure, or character that represents something else.
Genotype
An organism's genetic component.
Cross-cultural perspective
Analyzing a human social phenomenon by comparing that phenomenon in different cultures.
Applied anthropology
Anthropological research commissioned to serve an organization's needs.
Practicing anthropology
Anthropological work involving research as well as involvement in the design, implementation, and management of some organization, process, or product.
Which of the following is the most significant aspect of the salvage paradigm?
Anthropologists need to collect information from societies before they die out
The practical use of anthropological knowledge to address real-world problems, sometimes called anthropology's "fifth field," is _________________________.
Applied anthropology
The subfield of anthropology that studies the material remains of past cultures, often focusing on the rise of cities, is called
Archaeology
The peppered moth is a classic example of how environmental factors
Are part of an interaction between genotype and phenotype
The most successful life form on earth is thought by many to be
Bacteria
A taxonomic structure is one that
Both names and classifies all organisms according to a system
The historical practice of more powerful countries claiming possession of less powerful ones is called _____________________ and was a driving force in anthropology.
Colonialism
Collective definitions of proper and improper behavior that "build" meanings through common experiences and negotiations are cultural
Construction
Anthropologists believe that analyzing human cultural phenomena by comparing those phenomena across different societies, called the ___________________ approach, is necessary to appreciate how "artificial" our beliefs and actions are.
Cross cultural
The subfield of anthropology that studies human diversity, beliefs, and practice is called:
Cultural anthropology
The unilateral decision of one social group to take control of the symbols, objects, and practices of others is called
Cultural appropriation
The moral and intellectual principle that one should withhold judgment about seemingly strange or exotic beliefs and practices is known as
Cultural relativism
A key feature of the _____________ concept is that it refers to the taken-for-granted notions, rules, moralities, and behaviors within a social group that feel natural.
Culture
One problem with the argument that chimpanzees and humans are similar because they share so much _______ in common is that humans also share a significant percentage of it with daffodils.
DNA
The nineteenth-century British anthropologist credited with the development of the concept of culture through an evolutionary perspective was
E.B Tylor
Who was responsible for the theory of social evolution?
E.B. Tylor
One of the useful results of a phylogeny is to show that
Each lineage has a unique history and this no organism is "more evolved."
Holism
Efforts to synthesize distinct approaches and findings into a single comprehensive interpretation.
Speciation
Emerges when genetic variation within a group grows so large that its members begin exhibiting important genetic and physical differences.
The process of learning culture from a very young age is called
Enculturation
The core idea of Darwin's and Wallace's ideas—descent with modifications via natural selection—is intimately tied to what larger force?
Evolution
______________________ refers to the adaptive changes that organisms make across generations.
Evolution
Domesticated and wild animals may differ in all the morphological traits listed below
Except tameness
Activities that are biologically based, such as eating and sleeping, are universally the same for all humans
False
All humans are born with some culture
False
Culture is uniquely human
False
Gene flow is the movement of genetic material across different ecosystems
False
Non-random mating among the Hutterite sect in Canada is a good example of how genetic drift works
False
T/F: Contemporary cultural anthropologists often rank societies along an evolutionary scale from "primitive" to "advanced."
False
T/F: Cultural appropriation involves relationships of power
False
T/F: Cultural relativism is important because it helps anthropologists understand and defend all the things that people in other cultures do.
False
T/F: Genetic drift can occur because of an intentional change in health policies in a particular country.
False
T/F: Historical archaeologists excavate sites where written historical documentation exists that provide an accurate description of the way the people actually lived.
False
T/F: People rarely hold conflicting values
False
T/F: The scientific method is a research method in pursuit of ultimate truths.
False
Variation in genes acts as the sole source for biological change of traits in an organism
False
T/F: Anthropologists have always approached a problem by specializing in one of the four subfields.
False?
When cultural anthropologists live in societies for one or more years observing social life, they are doing _______________________.
Field work
Loss of genetic variation occurring when a small population creates a new, usually isolated, community is known as the _______________ ____________
Founder effect
The American anthropologist responsible for the concept of historical particularism was named
Franz Boas
Because our values and beliefs include many elements of life such as clothes, food, and language means that culture is
Integrated
Why was the discovery of penicillin in 1928 useful in our understanding of evolution?
It demonstrated that bacteria could quickly develop the ability to resist antibiotics
The success of simple life forms such as bacteria challenges one of the early ideas about evolution because
It demonstrates the oversimplification that comes from thinking humans are more highly evolved
Examples of social institutions are
Kinship, economy, educational, government, law, religion
The idea of biological evolution was first proposed by
Lamarck in the late 1700s
Culture is (includes what characteristics?)
Learned and shared
The subfield of anthropology that studies language use is called
Linguistic anthropology
Research that involves interviews, observations, images, objects, and words is a _____ study.
Qualitative
Techniques that classify features of a phenomenon and count, measure, and construct statistical models are collecting and analyzing
Quantitative data
The theorist most connected with post-structuralism is
Renato Rosaldo
"Survival of the fittest" is taken to mean competition for
Reproductive success
The extinction of the dinosaurs provides us with an example and opportunity to
Show the role of evolutionary change over time. (Speciation)
The idea that cultures pass through stages from primitive to complex is known as
Social evolutionism
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)
Spiral-shaped molecule strands that contains the biological information for the cell.
Values
Symbolic expressions of intrinsically desirable principles or qualities.
A relativistic perspective on the meanings of Coca-Cola in Tzotzil Maya communities in Chiapas, Mexico, would emphasize what?
That those meanings are only sensible within a culturally specific set of ideas about religion and spirituality
What prompted intellectuals to start systematically explaining the differences among people?
The Industrial Revolution
Evolution
The adaptive changes in populations of organisms across generations.
Developmental bias
The idea that not all variations are random, but a function of the developmental processes organisms undergo during their lives that tend to generate certain forms more readily than others.
Cultural construction
The meanings, concepts, and practices that people build out of their shared and collective experiences.
Cultural relativism
The moral and intellectual principle that one should withhold judgment about seemingly strange or exotic beliefs and practices.
Gene flow
The movement of genetic material within and between populations.
An evolutionary perspective would be most likely to explain colonialism as
The natural abilities of more civilized people to control less civilized people
Phenotype
The observable and measurable traits of an organism.
Speciation
The process by which new species arise.
Clyde Kluckhohn argued that both biological and cultural aspects of humanity must be seen as a continuum of small changes
True
Culture can be transmitted virtually through the Internet in addition to face-to-face interaction.
True
Many evolutionary processes interact to affect the organism.
True
Most anthropologists believe in a single unified theory of culture.
True
T/F: A change in DNA sequence leading to variation is known as mutation
True
T/F: A key concern in the 1850s that shaped the discipline of anthropology was the emergence of a new scientific theory called "evolution."
True
T/F: Anthropologists like E. E. Evans-Pritchard and Renato Rosaldo do not see cultural anthropology as a science
True
T/F: Culture consists of the collective processes that make the artificial seem natural.
True
T/F: Diversity, defined anthropologically, refers to both multiplicity and variety, which is not the same thing as "difference."
True
Norms
Typical patterns of actual behavior as well as the rules about how things should be done.
While the behaviors selected for by Belyaev and Trut in their work with foxes have some genetic basis, it remains true that
Variations in behavior and morphology are expected because genes don't always shape such variability.
Empirical
Verifiable through observation rather than through logic or theory
Niche construction
When organisms play an active role in their evolution by reshaping the environment to suit their own needs.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle proposed that all life was arranged in
a great chain of being
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
A social consequence of introducing coffee into the highlands of Papua New Guinea was that
a)young men gained social status b) coffee plantations took over all open land c)people had more access to commodities
An evolutionary perspective on variations in physical traits reflects
adaptive changes
The comparative method is:
all of the above. allows anthropologists to derive insights from careful comparisons of 2 or more cultures or societies
Comparing DNA sequences allows us to understand whether organisms are connected through common
ancestry (?)
The subfield of anthropology that studies human evolution, including human genetics and human nutrition, is called
biological anthropology
When Kay Warren presented her anthropological research, a group of Maya intellectuals, activists, and political leaders:
challenged her right to study, as a foreigner
"Owning" culture (means)
controlling symbols that give meaning
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
If you wanted to understand the norms of a society, you would most likely focus on
everyday interactions
The refinement of Darwin's theory has shown that
evolution can only be measured or seen across generations within a population
According to the extended evolutionary synthesis, parents who teach their young a particular behavior that aids in their evolutionary success are practicing
extra-genetic inheritance
Individuals migrating from one country to another can fundamentally alter genetic variation in all members of both populations because of
gene flow
An _____________ approach to culture, such as that promoted by Clifford Geertz, Victor Turner, and Mary Douglas, emphasizes that culture is a shared system of meanings.
interpretive
Michael Ames developed exhibits with native Canadian communities at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia because he believed in
interpretive theory.
Many anthropologists are wary about traditions because, while they may feel antiquated to some people, they are often _______________
invented
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
Cultural determinism is unproductive for cultural analysis because
it explains all human action as the product of culture alone, it can justify atrocities, it denies the influence of factors like physical environment and biology on humans
Plasticity can be understood as not being Lamarckian because
modification happens before genetic changes appear that keep the change in place across generations
Norms are stable because
people learn them when they are young
A ______________ charts the evolutionary history of a particular taxonomic branch and yields information about its ancestry.
phylogeny (?)
If you wanted to study genetic drift in Hutterite colonies such as those in which Michael Park studied gene flow, you would be interested in
random factors, such as accidents, who gets to mate, or other events that change the makeup of the population. Also, the founder effect (the loss of genetic variation when a new population is founded by a small number of individuals).
Anthropologists overcome ethnocentrism by
seeing matters from the point of view of another culture
During fieldwork, cultural anthropologists
study how environmental changes affect agriculture, learn the local language, record people's economic transactions (all of the answers are correct)
A cross-cultural perspective on eating insect larvae would reveal
the artificiality of taste the cultural constructions of insects as food, that eating, insects can be adaptive
A key element of the scientific method, which both explains things and guides research, is
theories
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 people to promote shared cultural goals
The main idea behind the holistic perspective is to study culture
through systematic connections of different parts
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
Mutation
Change at the level of the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid).
Meiosis
The process of gamete production.
Cultural anthropology
The study of the social lives of living communities.
The perspective that aims to identify and understand cultures in the entirety is called
Holistic
The primary ethical responsibility of anthropologists is to (who):
The people or species they study
Colonialism
The historical practice of more powerful countries claiming possession of less powerful ones.
Ethnographic method
A prolonged and intensive observation of and participation in the life of a community.
Replication
The process by which DNA makes copies of itself.
A key principle of the holistic perspective developed by Franz Boas is
A goal of synthesizing the entire context of human experience
Plasticity
A particular form of developmental bias in which an organism responds to its environment by changing during its lifetime.
The most enduring and ritualized aspects of culture are referred to as
Traditions
The theory of culture that proposes that cultural practices, beliefs, and institutions fulfill the psychological and physical needs of society is called
Functionalism
Holistic perspective
A perspective that aims to identify and understand the whole—that is, the systematic connections between individual cultural beliefs and practices—rather than the individual parts.
Protein synthesis
How DNA assists in the creation of the molecules that make up organisms (proteins).
Mitosis
The process of cell division and replication.
Cultural appropriation
The unilateral decision of one social group to take control over the symbols, practices, or objects of another.
Biological anthropologist Andrea Wiley's work with lactase persistence is important to public health because it draws attention to
What food types we have access to and are privileged in policymaking
Population
A cluster of individuals of the same species who share a common geographical area and find their mates more often in their own cluster than in others
An ethical approach to anthropological research would emphasize
A commitment to doing no harm, Rejection of clandestine research, Responsibilities toward the host country and the people you are studying
Founder effect
A form of genetic drift that is the result of a dramatic reduction in population numbers so that descendent populations are descended from a small number of "founders."
Phylogeny
A graphic representation that traces the evolutionary relationships and identifies points when an evolutionary event or change occurred, such as the creation of a new species.
Taxonomy
A system of naming and classifying organisms.
Adaptation
The development of a trait that plays a functional role in the ability of a life form to survive and reproduce.
Diversity
The sheer variety of ways of being human around the world.
Quantitative methods
A methodology that classifies features of a phenomenon, counting or measuring them and constructing mathematical and statistical models to explain what is observed.
Industrialization
The economic process of shifting from an agricultural economy to a factory- based one.
The controversy between Native Americans and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) schools using mascots illustrates
the power of tradition
Functionalism
A perspective that assumes that cultural practices and beliefs serve purposes for society.
Social sanction
A reaction or measure intended to enforce norms and punish their violation.
Comparative Method
A research method that derives insights from careful comparisons of aspects of two or more cultures or societies.
Qualitative methods
A research strategy producing an in-depth and detailed description of social activities and beliefs.
Gene
A segment of DNA that contains the code for a protein.
Interpretive theory of culture
A theory that culture is embodied and transmitted through symbols.
Reproductive success
How many surviving offspring an organism has.
The defining feature of historical particularism is
Individual societies develop particular cultural traits and undergo a unique process of change
What process involves shifting from an agricultural economy to a factory-based one?
Industrialization
The practice of anthropologists explaining their research to participants and being clear about the risks involved is called _________________________.
Informed consent
Ethics, which are _______________________________, are important to anthropologists.
Moral questions about right and wrong and standards of appropriate behavior
Ethics
Moral questions about right and wrong and standards of appropriate behavior.
Natural selection
The process through which certain heritable traits become more or less common in a population related to the reproductive success of organisms interacting with their environments.
Extra-genetic inheritance
The socially transmitted and epigenetic factors that can aid in the adaptive success of organisms.
Scientific method
The standard methodology of science that begins from observable facts, generates hypotheses from these facts, and then tests these hypotheses.
Archaeology
The study of past cultures, by excavating sites where people lived, worked, farmed, or conducted some other activity.
The application of a holistic perspective to understand changes in everyday practices, such as eating breakfast cereals, reveals
the processes of cultural appropriation
The work of Russian geneticists over forty years, selecting for tameness among foxes, resulted in changes in animal
Morphology and physiology
Ethnocentrism
The assumption that one's own way of doing things is correct while dismissing other people's practices or views as wrong or ignorant.
Alleles
The variants in the DNA sequences for a given gene.
Who was responsible for the theory of functionalism?
Bronislaw Malinowski
A quantitative approach to studying the archaeological past would be most interested in
Building and testing hypotheses by collecting, classifying, and measuring the remains of past cultures
One of the central ideas of Darwin's theory of evolution was the idea that
Change in organisms was related to their adaptability to a particular environment Species change over time, give rise to new species, and share a common ancestor; Descent with modification via natural selection
The thinker who developed evolutionary theory in the nineteenth century was:
Charles Darwin
The experience of feeling that the way your culture does things is the right way and any different way of doing things is wrong is called
Ethnocentrism
The method of data collection that involves prolonged and intensive observation of everyday life and is a hallmark of cultural anthropology is ____________________________.
Ethnographic method
The theory that posits that cultural practices and beliefs serve purposes for society is called
Functionalism
The influence of figures like Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, and Galileo Galilei on the intellectual history of evolution is that they showed the importance of
Gaining knowledge through the careful observation of nature, sensory evidence, measurement, hypothesis building, mathematical proof, and experimentation.
The Human Terrain System, a program of the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan, used anthropologists to ______________________________.
Help soldiers understand village politics and translate information
How would a critical relativist explain Native American criticisms of cultural appropriation?
Native Americans claims from their point of view though it doesn't mean we should accept them as the only way to view the issue.
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
The process by which inheritable traits are passed along to offspring because they are better suited to the environment is
Natural selection
Speciation, when considered as an outcome consistent with Darwin's idea of descent with modification, supports the idea that
New forms of life are not created but arise from previously existing forms.
In terms of the extended evolutionary synthesis, large-scale agriculture, which produces massive amounts of both food and pollution, can be understood as a form of
Niche construction
Social institutions
Organized sets of social relationships that link individuals to each other in a structured way in a particular society.
The structuralist approach to culture theorizes what?
People make sense of the world through binary oppositions
What U.S. food-policy ideas might emerge out of Andrea Wiley's research on lactase persistence?
Policies should promote non-milk food products that are also high in calcium, fat, and protein.
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
Western colonial powers understood the different customs and cultures of the people they colonized as
Proof of their primitive nature
Sickle-cell anemia, a blood cell mutation, takes a toll on those afflicted, but is an example of a mutation that may also be useful because it
Provides resistance to malaria in the tropics.
Even though anthropologists use parts of the scientific method, some don't see what they do as science because
The complexity of social behavior prevents any completely objective analysis of human culture
A qualitative approach to studying social life in your university would emphasize what?
The construction of statistical models to explain activities in the community
Cultural determinism
The idea that all human actions are the product of culture, which denies the influence of other factors, such as physical environment and human biology, on human behavior.
Salvage paradigm
The paradigm that held that it was important to observe indigenous ways of life, interview elders, and assemble collections of objects made and used by indigenous peoples.
Essentialism
The philosophical position that dictates that each organism has a true, ideal form and that all living representatives of that organism are slight deviations from the ideal type.
Enculturation
The process of learning the social rules and cultural logic of a society.
Linguistic anthropology
The study of how people communicate with one other another through language and how language use shapes group membership and identity.
Anthropology
The study of human beings, their biology, their pre-prehistory and histories, and their changing languages, cultures, and social institutions.
Biological anthropology
The study of the biological aspects of the human species, past and present, along with those of our closest relatives, the nonhuman primates.
Modern Synthesis
The view of evolution that accepts the existence of four genetically based processes of evolution: mutation, natural selection, gene flow, and genetic drift.
Extended Evolutionary Synthesis
The view of evolution that accepts the existence of not just genetically based but also non-genetically based processes of evolution: developmental bias, plasticity, niche construction, and extra-genetic inheritance.
T/F: Humans and chimpanzees share 98% of their genes.
True
T/F: Qualitative methods often use the researchers themselves as the research instrument.
True
T/F: There is rarely any guessing involved in the development of theories because they are tested repeatedly.
True
Theory
A collection of tested and repeatedly supported hypotheses.
Assuming your culture's way of doing things is the best is called
Ethnocentrism
Customs
Long-established norms that have a codified and lawlike aspect.
Tradition
Practices and customs that have become mostly ritualized and enduring.
Culture
The taken-for-granted notions, rules, moralities, and behaviors within a social group.
