anthropology quizzes

An explanation for the origin or history of the world is known as a ________. These provide "big picture" explanations for how human life was created and provide a perspective on the forces or powers at work in the world.

Cosmology

What concept refers to a distinct identity based on cultural characteristics and a shared ancestry that are believed to give its members a unique sense of peoplehood or heritage?

Ethnic Group

An example of an illness caused by emotional difficulties would be susto found mainly in ___________, which is an ailment caused by a shock or fright resulting in difficulty sleeping and loss of energy and appetite.

Mexico

Looking at regions like Sub-Saharan Africa, the effects of colonization (the economic, social, and political exploitation of non-European populations spanning hundreds of years) can be seen still today. At the end of the colonial period in Kenya, for example, the white population of European colonial settlers, which made up ~1% of the total population, owned (had taken) 50% of the arable (farmable) land in the country. The same is true in South American countries where descendants of Spanish colonial settlers control enormous swaths of land known as Latifundias. In the past, landless people would become indentured servants - aka slaves - who would be required to work the land for the owners in exchange for food and shelter. Since they didn't have land or money for shelter, the landowners would create debts for their workers which the workers would never be able to pay off. This system meant generation after generation would be trapped in this cycle. While explicit indentured servitude is less common today, the function of the capitalist system works in a similar, yet less restrictive way for poor people - this is what we will discuss as structural violence. In the film, there are numerous examples of what happens when people have no land to grow food and must, therefore sell their labor to survive. In the same vein, just on a larger scale, wealthy countries and corporations would "develop" poorer countries via loan programs, but when the countries could not pay back the loans, the wealthy countries demanded cost saving measures be implemented. This included forcing poverty stricken people to pay for their own schooling, medical care, and water, while also requiring the government grant special access to corporations to acquire raw materials like oil at a cheaper price. Select which one or more of the following answers were real world cases described in the film.

- Amongst sugar cane workers in Sao Paolo, Brazil, the conditions are often dire. Foreman have been known to confiscate work permits and hide them preventing their workers for leaving to find work elsewhere. They are also only paid if they cut a certain amount of cane - regardless of how many hours they work. Even when they get paid, the average monthly wage is less than $30. - In Kenya, where very few people have access to their traditional land, living in slums is not uncommon. For poor people, like Joseph and his family, education and healthcare are often unreachable given the high cost of fees. This means while opportunities exist, the vast majority of people cannot access them ensuring the cycle of poverty persists. - In Bolivia, the privatization of the water system, prompted by international lenders, meant that many everyday Bolivians could not afford to buy water. Often these international monetary organizations impose such requirements on countries to counter high debt levels without acknowledging that the debt is directly the result of colonization and post-WWII development policies. In Bolivia, the precious metal wealth literally stolen from the country by Spain has never been repaid.

These two maps (Penn State University: Nina Jablonski and George Chaplin) show the distribution of UV radiation and human skin color across the globe. As described in the film and articles, select which one or more of the following statements are true.

- Forested areas, even those in the equatorial regions, provide greater protection from solar radiation. This helps to understand why present day human in the Amazon Rainforest have lighter brown skin than in Eastern Africa. This also helps us to understand why chimpanzees have white skin under their hair while all humans (before leaving Africa) had dark skin. - Our common ancestor with chimpanzees, like modern day chimpanzees and bonobos, had white skin covered in hair. The populations of our common ancestor in Western Africa remained somewhat similar over time because their environment changed little (this is also why our primate cousins look more similar to our shared ancestor than we do). The populations living in Eastern Africa were subjected to a dramatic drying trend that diminished the forest in favor of expansive grasslands. - One of our most important adaptions to the newly hot and arid climate was the ability to sweat. In order to function at peak levels, positive evolutionary selection favored minimizing body hair (although note that we are all still mostly covered in hair, it is just finer). When we lost our hair, the fair skin we had long had was no match for the equatorial sun. Our skin coloring evolved in response to these changes. - The major reason we evolved darker skin color in this new environment was not because UV radiation causes cancer (which it does, but only after our reproductive years meaning evolution cannot act upon it), but rather because it destroyed a necessary nutrient in our blood stream. This nutrient, folate, is a vital component in many aspects of reproduction - from helping to form a healthy neural tube (brain/spinal cord) to making healthy sperm.

While the vast majority (categorically speaking) of humans in the 21st century die of non-communicable diseases like heart disease and cancer, a number of animals are known to cause death to humans. Either through carrying disease or attack, animals can pose a serious threat to our well-being. Living in Southern California we may have learned to fear sharks or bears, they account for few, if any, deaths in a given year. Sometimes our perception has little to do with reality. What two animals cause the most human deaths per year?

- Mosquitoes - Humans

Just as we are doing today with the SARS CoV-2 (Covid-19) pandemic, skeptics of the Spanish Flu, which claimed the lives of an estimated 50 - 100 million people (many of them young and healthy), argued publicly that it was a hoax, was overblown, or that it was alarmist. This denial not only caused many people to disregard life-saving public health messages, the impact of the Flu had effects for generations after it ended. Studies of these effects among those who survived the outbreak found that:

- US census data from 1960 to 1980 found that the children born to women exposed to the pandemic had more physical ailments and a lower lifetime income than those born before or after the outbreak (even by a few months) - A 2006 study in the Journal of Political Economy found that "cohorts in utero during the pandemic displayed reduced educational attainment, increased rates of physical disability, lower income, lower socioeconomic status, and higher transfer payments compared with other birth cohorts"

In the article "A Brief History of Pandemics", D. Huremović, explains that the most well-known of "the plagues" which we refer to as the "Black Death began spreading around 1334 via flea-infested rats stowing away in trade cargo alone the Silk Road. The virus, Yersinia Pestis, brought about death very quickly for those infected either as bubonic plague (70% death rate) or pneumonic plague (95% death rate). At the time, the global population was around 450 million people and within 50 years, the Black Death had claimed the lives of an estimated __________________ people. Some argue that upwards of 60% of Europeans died at this time.

150 million

As we learned in Crash Course Economics, the film "The End of Poverty" illustrates the fact that the modern capitalist economic system requires that a small subset of the population control the factors of production. This means not only do capitalists have access to money in order to start an enterprise, but that they also controlled the land on which goods are produced, the tools needed for production, the labor which would produce their commodity, and the raw material which it was made out of. There also must be markets for capitalists to sell their products. The capitalist system needs capitalists controlling the factors of production along with consumers (with money) to buy the items they were making. While it might seem like the colonized world was advantaged because the vast majority of desirable raw materials were found outside of Europe, in reality, these places were the source of raw material, but Europe was the "workshop of the world". Europe took the raw materials by force or by paying significantly lower prices for materials and then using those materials back at home to make products which were then sold back to countries at much higher prices. This eventually extended to the Triad (Europe, America, and Japan) which exploited the "Third World" in essence creating the poverty we see today. Match the example discussed in the film illustrating the actual function of the capitalist system. 1. Dominating the textile industry was made possible through controlling the production of the raw crop in South Asia, but producing the end product textiles in Britain. The monoculture destroyed the native economy ensuring that people relied on imported textiles, but also on imported food. 2. In order to protect private Euro-American corporate interests, the US spread propaganda against leaders who stated their desires to provide more of the raw material wealth to their own people. Anything that stood in the way of corporate interests was demonized. The US event went so far as to conduct covert miltary operations to ensure the assignation of one leader and the empowerment of a more corporate-friendly person. For example, many leaders deemed tyrannical today were actually our hired hitmen in the past. 3. The American company based out of Oklahoma made a deal with the government of Kenya to develop lands already inhabited by small-family farmers. When the industrial farm set up operations in this area, they flooded the traditional land leading many people to lose their homes and their food fields. These people received no compensation from the government nor the corporation and were forced to simply live with the consequences.

1. Cotton 2. Oil 3. Agricultural Crops (Legumes)

In the Crash Course episode on Economic Systems, they introduce us to three macroeconomic systems found in the modern world. These are: free-market, planned, and command economies. The differentiating factor between these systems is who owns the factors of production including the driving force behind what is produced (i.e. to who's explicit benefit - not that there aren't benefits in all systems). This is where we can differentiate between capitalism and socialism, but, or course, in the real world there are not such clearly drawn lines. While there are a few examples of these systems, in reality, the vast majority of economic systems are mixed - meaning the incorporate various elements of government regulation and free-markets. Match the example with the economic system it best reflects 1. In many societies, governments determine what are matters of public concern and what can be produced for the benefit of the public. In some places, this means providing education or healthcare through taxpayer funds. This is different from other countries who view these as matters of private concern and choice. This system also employs government regulations to increase access, care for other concerns like the environment, and to ensure that a country has items it might need. For example, the government might use taxpayer funds to subsidize farming which would otherwise be too expensive in order to ensure the country controls it's own food resources. 2. In this economic system, the government does not impose regulation over the factors of production meaning they are owned and controlled by private interests. The capitalists own and control the factors of production. The vast majority of society owns nothing, rather, they participate in the economy by selling their labor. In this system, it is the market that dictates what is produced and how much it costs. In other words, because capitalists are reliant upon consumers and workers, they will likely tailor their products to meet their needs. This also assumes that consumers will shift interest toward the public good with their purchasing power, even though this doesn't often workout this way in real life. 3. These are the rarest systems because they do not promote widespread economic growth in the modern world. While this system does allow the government to exert immense control over society, it often comes at the price of development. In this system, people and companies produce what the government requires and following strict government regulation. While all economic systems function as a form of social control, the controlling effects of this economic system may be most visible. These also require authoritarian governments to enforce policies.

1. Planned Economy 2. Free- Market Economy 3. Command Economy

The truth of the matter is that we have often forgot our own history. Maybe we never learn it in school. There are those who seek to rewrite or whitewash history in a way to promote their own narrative (we have already learned somewhat about "hegemony" - ideological domination - the most powerful force in society). By not knowing what laid the foundation for the present, we often misunderstand what is happening and rely on "easy, commonsense answers" the are most often wrong not matter how "right" they might feel. Explore the following history of race in the United States https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/158-resources-understanding-systemic-racism-america-180975029/ . Make sure to click on the blue highlighted words like "Jim Crow" to find the correct and specific date for events where the date is not listed. Order the events described. I recommend making notes on a scratch paper and having the website opened in another tab so you can reference both. TAKE YOUR TIME.

1525 1. The beginning of the Transatlantic Slave Trade wherein over a period of 300 years 12.5 million African people (men, women, and children) were kidnapped and transported to the Americas. More than 2 million died on the journey alone and tens of millions more would die in slavery. 2. More than three centuries after the slave trade began, the last known survivor of the transatlantic slave trade, Matilda McCrear was kidnapped from her home in West Africa and enslaved in Mobile Alabama (50 years after the transport of slaves was outlawed). 3. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed on January 1, 1863, however it took two-and-a-half years to fully enact. "June 19, 1865—the day Union Gen. Gordon Granger informed the enslaved individuals of Galveston, Texas, that they were officially free—is now known as Juneteenth: America's "second independence day." 4. ?? 5. ?? 6. ?? 7. ?? 8. ?? 9. Even though many White Americans (throughout the US) viewed African Americans as inferior citizens often working to exclude Blacks from mainstream society, a large number of African Americans fought and died for this country on the battlefield. In WWII (1939-1945), for example, many all-Black battalions fought for ideals of freedom and society they were not able to enjoy when they came back home. 10. While countless gruesome and violent acts were committed against Blacks in the post-Civil War Era, the murder of 14-year old Emmett Till was particularly horrifying. Accused of whistling at and threatening a White woman, the husband and brother-in-law of the accuser kidnapped young Emmett and tortured and then lynched him. His mother insisted on an open casket so the world could see. The accuser admitted decades later that she had lied about the threats and his "whistle" was likely his lisp. https://eji.org/news/emmett-till-accuser-admits-she-lied/ 11. Many sparks of peaceful protests against the dehumanizing treatment of African Americans had begun by the mid-20th century. Inspired by Rosa Park's refusal to sit at the back of the bus, the Montgomery Bus Boycott relied on economic protests to challenge immorality of segregation. 12. One of the most famous events of the Civil Rights campaign were the marches in Selma, Alabama. Crossing the bridge, named after the KKK leader Edmund Pettus, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, and many others sought to end the centuries long discrimination, violence, and segregation perpetrated against African Americans. The peaceful marchers, especially on Bloody Sunday, were met with violence - even young Black girls were severely beaten by Police. 13. Correct Order Answer: Even decades on since the Civil Rights marches of the 1960's, the effects of a history of racism embedded in American culture continue to shape the lives of African Americans. While some argue that much has changed, a 2017 economic study demonstrated that the wealth gap between median-income White and median-income Black families has grown as has the rate of unemployment and incarceration (Here is a quick video on Structural inequality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrHIQIO_bdQ ). Violence against African Americans is also a continuing problem - think of how the murder of 12-year old Tamir Rice hearkens back to the murder of Emmett Till. The murder of George Floyd starkly demonstrates that even after 500 years, we are still grappling with race, racism, and the moral fabric of our culture. 2020

Although it might seem like a good idea to "do away" with race altogether, in fact, while race is a biologically meaningless concept, it remains a salient, powerful, and meaningful social category in human societies. It has many complex and convoluted effects, both positive and negative, on people's lived experiences. These categories are so deeply rooted in our history, identities, and societies, that to pretend we could become "colorblind" to solve racism would be as unrealistic and unproductive as pretending to be blind to solve blindness. As described in the film and articles, the experience of socially-constructed racial differences has shaped everything from our institutions (education, class system, financial practices) to our beliefs about the value of human beings. It is important to state, that while socially-constructed racial differences have had many horrendous consequences for those groups deemed 'lesser' or 'subhuman' at any given time, there are also deeply meaningful and positive social consequences in terms of group identity, community, and culture. Match the following pairs exemplifying issues regarding the social construction of race. A) The Rwandan Genocide (one of the worst in the 20th century) pitted two tribal groups against each other on the basis of racial/ethnic lines. Watch "Ghosts of Rwanda" on Kanopy (https://library.miracosta.edu/films) or the film "Hotel Rwanda" to learn about this important and devasting event. B) In Brazil, a country with many categories of skin color which are not necessarily recognized in the US, to combat the history of white racism and the reality of marked racial disparities, the country created a system which gives scholarships to black student to increase their participation in college. While meritorious and life-changing, it can also be a bit challenging to decide "who is or is not black"? C) The romanticized vision of a Buddhist monk in the Western mind is one the abhors violence and disconnects from the mundane divisions of the material world. While true in many cases, when it comes to racial and religious identity, these monks can perpetrate violent acts against those of different religions and cultural groups. D) In the US, we often construct racism as a problem of explicit actions (Jim Crow laws, racial epithets, KKK, White Nationalism). The problem with that, however, it that is misses the point that most racism is implicit (unconscious) meaning we don't know it affects us. But it is a part of everyone in one way or another. Learn more here: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-think-about-implicit-bias/

A) Over 70% of the Tutsi population was slaughtered (mostly with machetes) by the Hutu. It was neighbors killing neighbors. The divisions leading to the war were introduced by European colonial overlords. B) In "Skin Deep", identical twin brothers who were half African and half Portugese descent were confused by their racial assessment results. One brother was deemed black, while his identical twin was deemed white. C) In Myanmar, a million Rohinga (Muslim minority) were forced to flee their country amid rape and genocide against them. Forced into Bangladesh, their future is uncertain D) Police bias training isn't about tackling overt racists, but rather to help officers to diffuse their implicit racial biases (in everyone here just from growing up in our culture) and instead rely on meaningful assumptions related to known criminal behavior.

Ranked societies involve greater differentiation between individuals and the kin groups to which they belong. These differences can be, and often are, inherited, but there are no significant restrictions in these societies on access to basic resources. In other words, ____________ individuals can meet their basic needs.

All

In "How languages shape the way we think", Dr. Boroditsky explains that given what we know about how languages shape our brain differently, it is devastating to learn that languages are dying at a rate of one per week. This is not only because of the cultural losses associated with language death, but also the fact that most of our knowledge about neurological function is culturally-biased. These studies operate under the assumption that all human brains, regardless of culture, are similarly functioning. This may not be wholly true given linguistic research findings. This challenges neuro-scientific studies which tend to rely on a similar set of study participants - most often _______________________.

American English-Speaking Undergrads

Anthropology is a holistic discipline - meaning we share knowledge across different subdisciplines to create a fuller and more nuanced view of our focal point of study - humans. Since humans are a complex, multifaceted organism, it only make sense that to know what it means to be human requires more than just a biological or just a cultural perspective. For example, think about how you might study human language. You need linguistics to tell you meanings and how it is used, you need cultural anthropology to explain why they have constructed a language in a certain manner (an vice versa - how language informs culture), and you need biology to explain why humans evolved complex language - both as an evolutionary strategies and also the mechanics of language in the body and the brain. What if I wanted to study a language from the past - like ancient Mayan hieroglyphs - what other subfield would I need?

Archaeology

In the BBC Earth article "The real reasons we have sex", the author details the evolutionary explanation for this reproductive strategy. While life on Earth began as asexually-reproducing single-celled organisms (prokaryotic life), the emergence of sexually-reproducing life happened somewhere around 1.2 billion years ago (or 3.4 billion years into Earth's 4.6 billion year existence). Asexual reproduction - basically cloning yourself via mitosis - was the preferential method, but even single-celled organisms are known to share genetic information and overtime sexual reproduction evolved. Mainly this happened because the environment was getting all crazy. So who was this "sexually adventurous" organism who waded into the wild world of sexiness?

Bangiomorpha pubescens - Red algae

In the documentary film "93Queen" were are introducted to Rachel (Ruchie) Freier, an Ultra Orthodox Hasidic Jew in New York. Following religious custom, Freier is a devout mother, wife, and practitioner of Judaism. She is also a lawyer and change-maker in her community. In Hasidic tradition, women are only ever intimate with their husbands, having never shown their bare legs or shared a simple kiss with any other man. Women are the keepers of the home and many people in the Hasidic community believe that is where women belong to best serve their faith. It is an honor, but it can also limit what a woman can do. Freier states that she has never done well with the idea she cannot do something. As a practicing lawyer and faithful mother to seven children, she already has her hands full, but when she hears that women are being turned away from the all volunteer EMS corps Hatzolah, she cannot be accept it and strives to form a women-only corps Ezras Nashim. Why, according to the film, was Hatzolah formed in the first place?

Because the response times in their part of Brooklyn, Borough Park, often exceeded 30 minutes

In ___________ practiced in Mongolia and Tibet, people believe in the transmigration of spirits after death — that the soul moves on, while the body becomes an empty vessel. To return it to the earth, the body is chopped into pieces and placed on a mountaintop, which exposes it to the elements — including vultures.

Buddhism

In Toraja, Indonesia, death is not a singular event, but rather death is viewed as a process. When a person has died, they are referred to as being "sick". They are kept in the home and cared for by their families for weeks or months after they have, by Western definition, died. The body is preserved with chemicals similar to those used in embalming and the person remains a central part of home life - meal, prayers, and rest. Once the family is ready to say goodbye, the burial is conducted. An elaborate ritual involving many steps including the sacrifice of a _______________ to ensure the deceased has a safe passage in the afterlife.

Buffalo

Many musicians and neuroscientists alike state that the importance of music for humans is that it makes us "feel" - in other words, it heightens our experience of the world. In the article "Four Ways Music Strengthens Social Bonds", we learn that music is likely integral to our development as the most social animal on earth. One way in which it is helpful for our social well being is by increasing our ability to empathize. How did scientists discover this connection?

By studying children's empathy response after playing games with or without music

The fallacy of biological race began when, in 1795, German physician and anthropologist Johann Blumenbach suggested that there were five races. Which race did he claim represented the original variety of humankind from which the other races had degenerated?

Caucasian

In the TedTalk "Why Ordinary People Need to Understand Power", Eric Liu helps us to wrap our heads around how a solid civics education can empower us to make real changes in our lives and communities. Very few of us take a civics class is school which means we are unschooled in the art of citizenship and ignorant about how power works in societies. Liu explains that in America, we have depressingly low rates of civic knowledge, engagement, and awareness leading us to the ignorant belief that we have no power. The result is that we "opt out", making claims like "everyone is corrupt" or "politicians are just in it for themselves" or "nothing can change". By not understanding power, by not being educated and informed in the workings of the system (civics), then you will inevitably get left out of the decision-making process. What were some points he made in his talk?

Civics is about the teaching of power - the capacity to make others do what you would have them do. An example of "power literacy" could be seen in Tuscaloosa wherein "the machine" went from dominating student elections to effecting local elections as well Citizenship is more local than it has ever been - cities are the major arena for practicing power Bypassing ineffective national governments, cities like Seattle have worked with other global cities to reduce carbon emissions

Anthropologists (and anthropological approaches) can best contribute in public health emergencies by understanding and communicating the myriad causes, understandings, myths, and fears of everyone involved. Just as we discussed in careers in anthropology, the way an issue is communicated and understood can affect the ultimate success or failure of an intervention. We can also see this in the issues surrounding the Covid-19 crisis. Anthropology activated in crisis situations has demonstrated, according to Stellmach et al, "_____________________ that accounted for complex social and political realities on the ground was key" to mitigating the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

Community engagement

In ""Why language is humanity's greatest invention", Dr. Peterson stated he not only studied linguistics, but also English. What was beautiful and underappreciated about literature, according to him, was that it was an imaginative form of art, not simply using language as a tool, but rather inventing new people and worlds. He used literature to argue against assertions made against his work with ______________ (languages he made up), by stating that these languages, like art forms show what language can do and the beauty of the human mind.

Conlangs

Combating an outbreak, especially one capable of becoming a pandemic, requires a significant amount of action and support on many levels of society. For the most recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa, contract tracers were required at the local level to identify and then break the chain of infection. Patient zero in this outbreak was a 2 year old boy in Meliandou, Guinea who likely contracted Ebola from a bat captured by a group of boys in a nearby tree. Tracers were then able to follow the virus from village to hospital to town. A rare survivor, Alhassan Kemokai, contracted the virus while taking care of his mother who had become ill. It is said that Ebola "spreads through love". In that way, anthropologists contributed to the halting of the outbreak by talking to the community about culturally appropriate and virus-safe ways of caring for and burying their loved ones. The government contributes through educational campaigns on how to protect and disinfect as well as to ensure the hospitals are well-supported. At the international level, government and health officials in other countries have to be vigilant about threats arising in other countries and be willing to take precautions even if they are met with resistance. Who was the hero of this outbreak in Lagos, Nigeria - the largest city in Africa - who ultimately died from exposure to Ebola?

Dr. Ameyo Adadevah

As we discussed in class, the industrial agricultural system enables a small subset of the population to produce an enormous surplus of food capable of feeding all the inhabitants of a community. This frees members of a community to specialize in other trades and careers leading to the great diversity of industry that we see in these economies. While this subsistence strategy enables specialization, it also means that if you are not capable of earning money, you are not capable of eating. In this system people do not own the means of producing the basic necessities of life and so if they cannot trade their labor to access money to trade for food, then they are likely to starve since they have no way of producing that food themselves. In this contemporary system, farmers produce more than enough food to feed all humans on earth without issue and yet each day many people die of hunger (many of those being children). Which statement addresses this statistic from "The End of Poverty?"

Economist John Perkins stated that upwards of 24,000 people die each day from hunger

Foragers such as the !Kung, Inuit, and aboriginal Australians, are _____________ societies in which there are few differences between members in wealth, status, and power. Highly skilled and less skilled hunters do not belong to different strata in the way that the captains of industry do from you and me.

Egalitarian

Legitimacy is the perception that an individual has a valid right to leadership. Legitimacy is particularly applicable to complex societies that require centralized decision-making. Historically, the right to rule has been based on various principles. In agricultural states such as ancient Mesopotamia, the Aztec, and the Inca, justification for the rule of particular individuals was based on hereditary succession and typically granted to the _________________.

Eldest Son

One of the founders of American anthropology, Franz Boas, demonstrated the importance of extensive field research when studying human cultures since they can really only be understood from within the local context. In that same vein, he also gave us the concept of _____________ which explains how we learn our own cultures by growing up in them.

Enculturation

In Lera Boroditsky's TED Talk "How languages shape the way we speak", she describes how the way we construct and communicate an event can shape our perception of it. She gives the example of a vase accidentally broken in a museum. While Spanish speakers, and many others, would construct the event by stating that the vase broke or the vase fell, for ________________ speakers, the construction would include the actor (e.g. he broke the vase). Interestingly, this not only effects perceptions of accidental events, but for languages that assign an actor, they are more likely to assign more blame and punishment than those who don't.

English

Anthropology courses are some of the most widely taken classes in higher education - ask most people with a degree if they took an anthropology class. You may be wondering what the value of an anthropology class would be for someone studying business, economics, mathematics, or chemistry. The answer is that whether you use the concepts from anthropology in your field - think how cultural relativism would make business models more lucrative and effective - or you are more prepared for a globalized sphere of work - collaborating with professionals and clients around the world, the study of humans can enhance every career. On top of that, one of the most important things anthropology course do it to help eliminate _________________, developing a more critically aware population.

Ethnocentrism

While it is natural to believe one's own culture is better than any other (especially given you are using that very culture to evaluate what makes a culture good or bad in your mind), this point of view is problematic when asserting it as fact. These assertions of cultural superiority, as history teaches us, have dramatic and devastating consequences in the world. In reality, many of these __________________ beliefs actually justified European colonization and genocide of non-Western peoples during the Age of Discovery and Colonialism. Anthropologists do not judge other cultures based on their values nor view other cultural ways of doing things as inferior. Instead, anthropologists seek to understand people's beliefs within the system they have for explaining things. This is known as cultural relativism.

Ethnocentrism

The Lakota, the second largest group of Native Americans in the U.S., learn that death is a part of life. Denial and anger in the Lakota grief model are, therefore, minimal. Upon dying, all people and animals enter a neutral spirit land ("Wanagi Makoce"). Since the soul is thought to _______________________, being good during life has nothing to do with attaining heavenly grace.

Exist before birth

By the end of the century, upwards of 90% of languages spoken on earth will be gone - and example of language death. Of the approximately 6,000 languages still surviving today, about half the world's more than seven billion people speak only ten. Which of the following is not one of these languages? These include Mandarin Chinese, two languages from India, Spanish, English, Arabic, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, and German

French

When a virus is spread via mosquitoes (or other microscopic and numerous creatures), the threat of uncontrolled transmission increases, especially in areas where these organisms thrive - like the tropics. The mosquitoes that spread Zika, aedes aegypti, are also known carriers of Dengue, Yellow Fever, and Chikungunya. Zika became even more threatening when scientists discovered that it could also be spread through sexual contact. Given the horrific effects it had on the brain's of developing babies, everyone around the world was eager to stop the spread. While contract tracing could help, for the most part Brazilians relied upon ridding itself of the mosquitoes that spread Zika. This included public campaigns, going door-to-door looking for potential breeding grounds. They would also spray insecticide. One other effort that was employed was a more recent innovation. What technique did scientists use to alter laboratory- bred male mosquitoes that they then released around Brazil?

Gene-editing so the males would pass on a faulty gene that killed offspring before full development

According to the article "Anthropology in Public Health Emergencies", in the early months of Ebola Outbreak in West Africa, responders - epidemiologists and medical professionals - devalued community understandings of the disease and customary funerary rites in favor of the most apparently scientifically-consequential approach. This lack of cultural awareness led many in these communities, who already feared and mistrusted the government, to ____________________________, avoid treatment, flee villages, and so forth ultimately spreading the virus and prolonging the outbreak.

Hide sick people and burials

Anthropologists will often live for years among their informants, learning their ways of life, customs, and beliefs through first-hand experience; this is a method we call participant observation. Famous anthropologists throughout history include Margaret Mead, who researched in Samoa, Bronislaw Malinowski, who lived in the Trobriand Islands, and Franz Boas, who studied among Inuit and Native American populations. We often construct anthropology, therefore, as going to far off exotic places that have never been touched by modernity (this, of course, is a fantasy view of cultures other than EuroAmerican, but will dive deeper into that later). The reality, however, is that ALL humans have culture and ALL humans are equally cultural. For that reason, many Anthropologists have turned their attention to American and European cultures as well. What culture did Anthony Kwame Harrison, PhD, Cultural Anthropologist at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University study for his book?

Hip Hop

In many cultures, rites of passage - going from one stage of life to another - are vital and important to one's sense of self and standing in the community. In our culture, this can be getting pierced ears, learning to drive, or joining the military. In others it can be circumcision, learning new songs and dances, or enduring painful ceremonial tasks. In some cultures, like those that practice male and/or female circumcision, modifying the body is the means by which a new life stage is marked. Scarification is one such modification. While these are important cultural traditions, they can also be hard to endure. What happened when little Nacha Philip was undergoing the process?

His father was scared to see his son bleed

Formalized legal systems are ways in which states can maintain social control and cohesion over large populations. However, these are not always as functional as one might expect. The United States, for example, has one of the highest crime rates in the industrial world despite having an extensive criminal legal system. The number of ___________ in New York City in 1990 exceeded the number of deaths from colon and breast cancer and all accidents combined.

Homicides

General purpose money serves as a medium of exchange, a tool for storing wealth, and as a way to assign interchangeable values. It reflects our ideas about the generalized interchangeability of all things—it makes products and services from all over the world commensurable in terms of a single metric. In so doing, it ______________ opportunities for unequal exchange

Increases

Stratification is a social structure that involves two or more largely mutually exclusive populations like classes in the United States. An extreme example is the caste system of traditional ________ society, which draws its legitimacy from Hinduism. In caste systems, membership is determined by birth and remains fixed for life, and social mobility—moving from one social class to another—is not an option.

Indian

Which ethnic group dominated professional basketball in the United States starting in the 1930s? That dominance was commonly explained by the media in terms of the alleged "scheming," "flashiness," and "artful dodging" nature of the culture. These stereotypes aimed to naturalize the dominance of this group based on perceived characteristics, rather than the true underlying cause which was poverty and urban identity.

Jewish Americans

Gender roles (and their underlying cultural assumptions) can be seen in language styles. In the US, women tend to use styles that are relatively cooperative, to emphasize an equal relationship, while men seem to talk in a more competitive way in order to establish their positions in a hierarchy. Other societies have very different standards for gendered speech styles. In ____________, men use a very flowery style of talk, using proverbs, metaphors and riddles to indirectly make a point and to avoid direct confrontation. The women on the other hand speak bluntly and say directly what is on their minds. Both admire men's speech and think of women's speech as inferior. When a man wants to convey a negative message to someone, he will ask his wife to do it for him. In addition, women control the marketplaces where tourists bargain for prices because it is impossible to bargain with a man who will not speak directly. It is for this reason that Malagasy women are, relative to much of the world, more economically independent.

Madagascar

Around the world, cultural approaches and views of death vary widely. While some view death as a somber, sad occurrence, in cultures where death is not a final separation, it can also be viewed as a celebration. Poet Octavio Paz writes that Mexicans are "seduced by death." The Mexican "day of the dead" ("dia de los muertos") on November 2 is festive rather than morbid. It is characterized by visits to cemeteries, the placing of ______________ on headstones, offerings to the dead, as well as exchanges of sugar skeletons and skulls.

Marigolds

The concept "_____________" describes the social relations (laborer/manager/factory owner) (forager) (farmer/market) (bourgeoisie/proletariat) through which human labor is used to transform energy from nature using tools, skills, organization, and knowledge. This concept originated with anthropologist Eric Wolf, who was strongly influenced by the social theorist Karl Marx.

Mode of Production

The ethical guideline of "do no harm" encourages anthropologist to ensure that their involvement with a community does not harm or embarrass their informants. Researchers must carefully consider any potential harm associated with the research, including legal, emotional, political, economic, social, and cultural dimensions, and take steps to insulate their informants from such harm. This concern came to the forefront in the research controversy surrounding which anthropologist?

Napolean Chagnon

The city of ____________ is known for the boisterous, jazz-tinged funeral procession. Fusing West African, French and African-American traditions, funerals there strike a unique balance between joy and grief as mourners are lead by a marching band. The band plays sorrowful dirges at first, but once the body is buried, they shift to an upbeat note.

New Orleans

Body Piercing, whether that be nose rings and earrings or lips plates, has been a widespread practice in human societies around the globe. While it has been done for many reason, it both decorates the body of the wearer, but also often signals their social status. For the women of the Apatani tribal region in northern India, nose plug piercings accompanied by facial tattoos was a sign of beauty. The story goes: in the ancient past, when warring tribes would attack, they would often steal the Apatani women. To protect their women, the tribes began encouraging this modification to discourage other tribes from kidnapping women. As a result, in the Apatani tribes, a women with such modifications was considered beautiful (she was so beautiful they had to modify her looks to protect her). How did shaman and families determine who a woman should marry in traditional practice?

Omens from chicken's liver

Often, what we learn from fieldwork among other cultures is that our assumptions about we consider to be universals of human behavior are wrong or misguided. Just as anthropologist Jean Briggs challenged our assumption that anger was a central and inevitable human emotion, Margaret Mead illustrated through her work in Samoa that behaviors associated with life stages were not universal either. In her most famous book "Coming of Age in Samoa", Mead conducted research on adolescent girls. She discovered that, unlike their American counterparts they did not experience the stress and anxiety associated with the transition to adulthood. What did she advocate be changed in America?

Parenting and Education

Which ethno-etiology, or cultural explanation about the underlying causes of health problems, views disease as the result of the active, purposeful intervention of an agent - like an evil spirit - that is then cured through interventions like exorcism?

Personalistic

We tend to imagine that the way we describe, experience, and conceptualize the world is the only way anyone does. We believe that we can accurately describe and represent another culture in our perspective without bias. The truth is, however, that every perspective is biased, in other words, shaped by the one experiencing it. For this reason, anthropologists cannot simply rely on their own observations, no matter how careful or long in duration. Multiple voices help to provide a whole picture combining various emic and etic perspectives. __________________ is when more than one person's voice is presented, and its use can range from ensuring that informants' perspectives are presented in the text while still writing in the researcher's voice to including informants' actual words rather than paraphrasing them and co-authoring the ethnography with an informant

Polyvocality

The _________ system of the Native American groups living in the United States and Canadian northwestern coastal area was long understood as an example of functional gift giving. Traditionally, two groups of clans would perform highly ritualized exchanges of food, blankets, and ritual objects. The system produced status and prestige among participants: by giving away more goods than another person, a chief could build his reputation and gain new respect within the community.

Potlatch

Scientists believe there are multiple factors which may have caused the increased occurrence of zoonotic disease spillovers. This includes a dramatic increase in human population (to over 7 billion people) leading to pressure on the food supply and increased human sprawl into natural habitats. The pressure on the food supply can have a two-fold effect: people eating wild-type foods like bats and primates and farmers encroaching upon habitats to create more fields. Flooded fields are especially problematic because they increase mosquito populations. As well, human-caused climate change has increased the range of certain species of mosquitoes which spreads these diseases further. Over the last half century, spillover diseases like Zika, MERS, SARS, Ebola, and (now) Covid-19 (SARS CoV-2) have nearly________________.

Quadrupled

Outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics of diseases are often the result of a zoonotic disease jumping from one species to another and then spreading quickly within a population because it is unfamiliar or hard to control. The initial transmission of the virus may occur because the new host consumed or came into contact with a host of a different species, for example, HIV was spread from apes to humans through their consumption as bush meat and Influenza was spread from fowl (ducks, geese, etc) to humans via airborne contagions when living in close contact. It may also be spread by carriers like lice, fleas, and mosquitoes which do not get infected themselves but carry the virus from host to host through fluid transmission. In other cases, like that of Nipah in Bangledesh, the virus is transmitted without having direct contact with the infected species. As we learned from the 1998 outbreak of the disease, which killed 3/4 of those infected, the virus could be spread through unknowingly sharing food with a carrier species - in this case bats. What were the people consuming that led to this outbreak - especially from December to March?

Raw date palm sap

Rituals are important aspects of religious systems. These bring communities together, reaffirming shared values, promoting collective effervescence, and providing meaning and purpose. A ritual known as a _____________ is a ceremony designed to transition individuals between life stages.

Rite of Passage

When we first encounter expressions like the neck rings tribal Burmese women wear, we often respond with shock and surprise. It can be hard to imagine wanting to wear constricting metal rings around one's neck for a lifetime, while elongating the neck through a deformation and eventual collapse of the collar bones. However, when we adopt a cultural relativist perspective we can see how this is an important and cherished tradition within the community. When "Mabang" has her rings taken off for a new fitting, what is her reaction to having them put back on?

She is glad to have them put back on and enjoys the tradition

"Jesus Camp", the documentary by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, follows a group of children and their Evangelical pastor to a summer Bible camp in North Dakota.The film begins with scenes at a children's Evangelical Christian prayer conference in Missouri. Dressed in military fatigues, donning face paints and large sticks, a performance group of grade-school aged children present a choreographed movement piece to worship music. Singing about hearing the "word of the Lord" and prophecy, the pastor later explains that the goal was to demonstrate what Christians should be willing to do for their God. Pastor Becky Fischer describes what kids do in other faiths, stating that Christians (and Americans presumably) have become lazy and "fat". She then asks the conference room full of children to raise their hands if they were willing to give up their lives for Jesus. Following from the choreographed performance in military clothes, she promotes the idea of being a warrior for Christ. After asking this question the prayer conference begins to do a ritual to connect to their strength. What was this practice?

Speaking in tongues; a trance-like state where one can receive the Holy Spirit

When making sense of modern, global economic systems, it is important to look at history to understand their origins. As discussed in the Crash Course clips, capitalism relies upon having capital or controlling the means of production in order to start businesses and corporations. When studying history, it is possible to see how more often than not, people became wealthy by forcibly seizing the assets of others to use for their own gain. This may be control of a trade route or access to trade goods, or claiming land and its inhabitants in the name of a country or corporation. As described in "The End of Poverty?" Modern Euro-American capitalism began as the wealthy elite disenfranchised the landed poor in Europe, either claiming their land as their own or incorporating their land and demanding taxes (then seizing the land when those could not be paid). When more land and resources were needed, these Europeans sought control of raw materials, labor, and land from places outside of Europe. Thus began colonization, the slave trade, and, more recently, neoliberal neocolonialism. Many argue that the roots of modern global capitalism began in 1492 as Portuguese and Spanish conquistadors (conquestors) set out for the "New World" in search of raw materials, riches, labor, and land. According to the article on the Cerro Rico in Bolivia, what raw material were the Spanish seeking and how did they acquire it?

Silver; they claimed the land for the Spanish Crown and required taxes. When people couldn't pay to live on their own land, they were forced to work in the mines until their (made up) debt was repaid (wherein many thousands died)

Belief systems (religions) serve a number of functions in human cultures including providing explanations, creating community and cohesion, and establishing a sense of purpose for adherents. These systems also serve as an important element of ___________________ because these beliefs help to define acceptable behaviors as well as punishments, including supernatural consequences, for misbehavior. Since ethics and morality are based in social convention, grounding these in a belief system gives more weight or legitimacy to rules not based in objective reality.

Social control

Code-switching is a linguistic practice we all do - changing the way we speak to fit the audience or to present the identity we wish to convey. Think of how you speak differently among your friends and your grandparents. On the one hand, code-switching can signal shared group identity while on the other hand it can illustrate the unequal perception of prestige attached to a given speech style. For example, if a student code-switches between dialects of school and home, they are learning (the false) idea that there are "educated" and "uneducated" ways to speak. When Spanish teacher John Davis moved from Pennsylvania to Tennessee to teach he experienced this first hand. Since he learned languages quickly, he easily picked up the local dialect. While this was appreciated by the students, when he used that dialect with the principal, he was shocked. His clear disapproval illustrated the view among the institution that some dialects were acceptable and others were not even though this was a false, socially-constructed narrative. Which dialect did he learn?

Southern, African American English

Fieldwork is the most important aspect of a cultural anthropologist's research. Experiencing the lives of informants is the most effective way to understand culture. In Claire Sterk's groundbreaking work, she conducted research among a subculture in America often hidden from mainstream life. While often portrayed as "fallen women", "morally corrupt", and "drug addicts", Sterk wanted to understand from the women themselves why the entered a life of prostitution. Her work dispelled many myths about these women, while also providing opportunities to protect them from the AIDS epidemic and help slow its spread. In her article, where she details her work among prostitutes in urban America, what did she say was the way the women determined her trustworthiness?

Streetwalker 101 Test

A popular narrative holds that if you work hard enough you can "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" in this country of immigrants and economic opportunity. The converse of this ideology is victim blaming: the logic is that if people are poor it is their own fault. However, studying _______________ helps us understand that for many people there simply is no getting ahead and all one can hope for is survival.

Structural Violence

In her TEDTalk "The way we think about biological sex is wrong", Emily Quinn explains how our created categories of "male" and "female" do not actually map onto the biological world and human bodies in the way we think they do. Although there may be male-type organs and female-type organs (although again it can be more complex), having these organs doesn't alone determine your sex. The same is true for your genes, hormones, brain patterning, and secondary sex characteristics like breasts and facial hair. It can be harder to tell than you think. Emily Quinn, for example, has testes in her body and XY chromosomes meaning she has male genes. But because her body is insensitive to androgens, the testosterone her testes made could not transform her body in other ways. Since humans has both estrogen and testosterone, her body began developing female secondary sex characteristics - even though her testes remain testes. If you saw her naked, you would not know she wasn't female. But if you dug up her skeleton 1000 years from now, you would conclude that she was male. The categories don't work, and yet Emily Quinn is happy, healthy, and alive. There are more people like Emily Quinn (intersexed) in the world than there are genetic redheads or Russian citizens. Even with this knowledge, society (and some doctors) have a long way to come. What falsehood did Emily's doctors tell her to encourage her to get surgery to remove a healthy part of her body?

That her testes would develop cancer if she did not have them removed

One might assume that having light or dark skin in humans is the same as the light skin in our common ancestor with chimpanzees. That, however, is false because chimpanzees do not have melanin (see images of Louie and other hairless chimps below). The only comparable example to our non-hominin ancestors and chimpanzees would be albino humans - individuals who make no melanin. In fact, all non-albino humans produce a relative amount of eumelanin (brown/black) and pheomelanin (red/yellow). This is also why human skin color is a gradient and why children of parents with different skin colors usually have a skin color in between. While scientists were able to sort out why humans had evolved darker skin in response to the extreme equatorial sun, they still needed to explain how the human genome mutated again to lighten the skin of those who, upon leaving Africa, were outside the tropics. In other words, what mutation would alter the relative amount of melanin types in human skin. It would seem that their skin would stay the same, unless, of course, there was a reason why darker skin could be harmful to our success in lower-UV environments. Based on the film and articles, select which one of the following statements best describes why this occurred.

The early humans migrating out of Africa likely all had dark skin from the melanin we evolved to protect ourselves in the changing landscape, but then evolution favored lighter skin in the higher latitudes. The benefit of lighter skin in low-UV environments was demonstrated in the film using historical examples from the industrial revolution of what happens to humans when they don't get enough sunlight. While UV-A is damaging to humans, UV-B is the best natural source of Vitamin D. It helps our bones absorb calcium and, thus, is necessary for skeletal formation. During the industrial revolution, children were not getting enough sunlight from pollution and cramped housing tenements and were developing rickets as a result. By studying this phenomenon, scientists were able to conclude that humans likely evolved lighter skin because the threat from UV-A was reduced in low-UV environments, but the need for UV-B absorbed through the skin to become Vitamin D was increased.

In "Sex Redefined", biologists explain how six weeks into human embryonic development, the gonads (which are present in all developing humans) initiate the process of differentiation. If the SRY gene is present and functional on the Y-chromosome, then the gonads begin to develop into testis which then produce testosterone - a hormone that changes the "plumbing" into the male form including growing a penis out of the tubercle. If the body is not sensitive to testosterone - then the individual could have testicles, but not develop a penis or male secondary sex characteristics which come during puberty (see video below if you want to know more). If the individual has XX chromosomes, then the presence and functionality of WNT4 and RSPO1 genes will develop the gonads into ovaries (secreting estrogen) and the tubercle will become the clitoris. Estrogen will promote female secondary sex characteristics during puberty. (But this can also vary widely as discussed in lecture). What is the conclusion we can draw about early embryos then?

The have the potential to develop along the male or female pathway

The documentary "Of Fathers and Sons" follows filmmaker Talal Derki to war-torn Syria to learn about life amid the civil war. Located in a town controlled by al-Nusra Front, the children of the Osama family, led by father Abu, grow up in a world that shapes them in their culture, family values, and religious beliefs. In one scene in the film the young boys learned values of right and wrong as it related to a person's actions in war - especially when a soldier is justified and glorified in their actions. In this scene, the boys had found a small bird and were playing with it around the house. Later, they killed the bird after it pecked one of the boys. When recounting the story to their father, he wanted to know more and listened to the event. One boy said he had decapitated it after the bird hurt his brother, stating it was the same as their father had done to opposition fighters. He hugged his son and they praised God. He had been imprisoned after being captured and had dreamed of his children everyday. When asked if it were okay to kill animals, the father stated that God provided animals for human use, but that they should not be killed in vain; it must be done justly. What did the father state about living things?

They should not be put in cages; all living things should be free

While Irish, Italian, and Jewish Americans where long considered "inferior" groups - not fully white - by the majority Anglo-Saxons, they were able to become "fully" white through government actions taken after WWII. This is also where the idea that money and status whitens comes from. These government benefits did not apply to African Americans who were denied access on the basis of race. What was the goal of the loans?

To help veterans buy homes and businesses

According to the excellent PBS series "Skin Stories" https://www.pbs.org/skinstories/history/, the practice of Polynesian tattooing began over 2000 years ago. With diverse meaning across the region, this practice nonetheless has an important cultural symbolism and significance in all communities where it is found. In the short film, we are introduced to the revitalization of "Ta Tatau" in the Cook Islands. The featured artist explains that the post-colonial resurgence of tattooing began with modern machines, but because they were not traditional, it was not the same. He stated that it was important to not only revive the art, but also the tools, because these belonged to the ancestors, to the Cook Islanders.

True

Chicano English, described by Carmen Fought in "Talking with mi Gente", is a dialect spoken mainly by people of Mexican ethnic origin in California and the Southwest. While some do speak Spanish, many speakers of Chicano English are not bilingual: they may not know any Spanish at all.

True

In many cultures, there are not 'religious' practices as we other cultures might experience them. This is because supernatural experiences, beliefs, and practices are not separated from other aspects of culture. In other words, there is little separation between the natural and supernatural realms.

True

Medical anthropologists do NOT believe there are universal categories of mental illness.

True

While it might seem strange to us in Western cultures, in Toraja, Indonesia, after a family member has been buried, they are exhumed for a special celebration called Ma'nene. During this ritual, the body of the deceased loved one is cleaned, newly clothed, and introduced to family members. The celebration demonstrates that even after someone dies, they remain an integral part of Torajan families.

True

While there are many different languages around the world, all languages are systematic, rule driven, and equally complex overall, and equally capable of expressing any idea that the speaker wishes to convey. There are no primitive languages.

True

Vaccines and antibiotics have radically transformed the health of the human population. For example, before the development of the vaccine, _____________ was killing 1-2 million people each year.

small pox

In David Peterson's TED Talk, he explains the problem with the assertion that language is only useful as a tool. He uses the example of High Valyrian, a language he created for Game of Thrones, to demonstrate that the speakers are simply learning this on duolingo for practical purposes, but rather because language has ___________. This is the same reason why, as he explains, many languages die out - it is not that they don't work as a tool, but rather that these tools are treated differently.

Value

In the article "Sex Redefined", we learn about the biological variability in sexually reproducing organisms in terms of categorization. While it is tempting to assume everyone is either male or female, in reality, those categories do not accurately define the biological variation that occurs. We are much more varied than we think (as our 46-year old pregnant patient discovered), and this can be in terms of genetics, sex organs, brain organization, hormones, and so forth. When studying genetics, for example, scientists found that we are a "patchwork of genetically distinct cells" wherein ___________________.

We have cells of different sexes in our bodies

As is described in our articles for the week, they way a person pronounces words and the words they choose can dramatically affect they way they are perceived and treated in society. We have attached particular social meanings to the way people speak and, thus, make assumptions about an individual (who we might have never even met) just by the way they speak. According to research, it takes just 30 milliseconds of speech (saying hello, for instance) to establish a "linguistic profile" on a speaker - especially if they are different from us - which includes regional background, class, gender, race and ethnicity. We also add in stereotypes to manners of speaking, for example, assuming someone with a southern accent is less intelligent. Based upon the linguistic profile we have created in our minds, we often act in biased ways, even if we are not intending to do so. John Baugh did research on this bias when it came to inquiring about apartments in the US. When he used different dialects of English common in the US, he was treated differently. What was the outcome?

When he used dialects like African American English or Chicano English he was told there were fewer apartments available

Humans are a single species consisting of polytypes (meaning we have a number of partially discrete populations) leading to the array of indigenous groups we see among modern humans around the globe. While we might imagine these populations as genetically isolated from one another, the reality is that there are very few, if any, traits that are found in single populations. The populations of humans that left Africa were smaller in number and all of them can trace their ancestry back to Africa. For this reason, there is very little genetic diversity among humans - white-tailed deer are six times more genetically diverse than us! All of the scientific evidence we have points to the conclusion that the biological concept of race is a fallacy (i.e. a falsehood that is not a biologically useful way to describe humans). Based on the film and the articles, choose one or more of the following statements which is true about human genetic diversity.

While we might imagine certain traits being tied to specific geographic localities, the reality for humans is that there are no such fixed traits. Human groups may have been isolated from time to time allowing new mutations to take root, but our constant migration meant that these new genetic characteristics were quickly spread to other places. The most genetically diverse continent on Earth is Africa. This means that Africans exhibit much more genetic variability and diversity than other places. This is likely because populations of humans in Africa were larger, decreasing the likelihood that they were closely related to their partner. Given humans highly-social predisposition, whenever given the chance to 'share our genes' we often do, regardless of all the differences we might perceive. This nature has problematized the assumption that there are any fixed populations of humans - we are a big family tree of mixed up genes. Think about your own family tree: can your family on both sides trace ancestry back thousands of years to just one small place? Probably not.

The Ebola virus was first discovered in the 1970's in Central Africa - a more sparsely populated area of Africa often organized into isolated villages. The first (and deadliest) strain of Ebola is called Zaire Ebola; named for the country (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and a river near the village where it was discovered. When doctors and epidemiologists arrived in the village (following the reported death of a nun from an unknown illness), they saw firsthand how devastating the disease was - killing upwards of 90% of those infected. While the disease was traced back to a village teacher who had consumed a _________, scientists now know that the carriers of the disease are ___________. This is true for the other disease scientists had discovered just a few years earlier - Marburg, which is as or more deadly than Ebola.

Wild antelope; bats

Enculturation, as anthropologists Franz Boas described, is the process of learning one's own culture while growing up within it. Someone's culture is not a facet of their biology, rather, humans are biologically evolved to be the most social animal on Earth. This means we live and thrive in groups. As such, over time our groups formed all the elements that make up our culture, but like a blueprint, give us a framework that can also be shaped by our individual tastes, our family, and our place in time. As we will learn in our section on Language, and as described in this week's article, culture shapes our brain (our brains are exceptionally malleable - especially in childhood), providing the structure through which we navigate the world. While some of these cultural lessons might be explicit, others are more subconscious. (Delve into a little marketing theory to learn more about how to influence the subconscious). What were some of the values that were shared in ALL THREE films? Parents love their children and try to teach them their values as best as they can Sacrifices must be made for God (Note: all three religions share the same one) Educational systems can clash with the values parents want to instill since both are teaching cultural values Isolation from other cultural groups is a facet of fundamentalism Children mimic adults and often excitedly support what their parents (or close adults) are doing even if it goes against what others might think

all of the above

When I show these films in class, students often react with surprise and shock (aka culture shock) at the values and behaviors within these communities. Since fundamentalists tend to remain segregated from more mainstream society, many people are unaware of the subcultures the surround them. As described in the chapter on Culture, we "other" people that are perceived to be different from ourselves as a means to reify and legitimize our own culture. This ethnocentric perspective helps us to establish what our culture views as "normal" and to reject anything that deviates from that. Given that humans "made it all up", the idea of "normal" is subjective - meaning determined by the position. Imagine the shock, for example, of a child who grew up in a Hasidic enclave seeing two adults kissing in the street or for an Evangelical Christian child learning that our deep evolutionary connection to cannibalism as a ritual is what made Jesus asking his followers to eat his flesh and drink his blood so powerful. Just as you may have viewed these fundamentalist subcultures as "strange", they likely view you the same way. Consider which one or more of the following things we do in mainstream American culture might be strange to someone outside our culture. braces earrings consumerism male circumcision

all of the above

In the video clip "The curious and captivating careers of Anthropology" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1Cm3MgpQ14 we are introduced to the wide ranging places we find anthropologists at work - from downtown building sites discovering ancient relics amid foundation digs to criminal investigations determining the cause and manner of death. While some anthropologists go on to become academic/research anthropologists (like your professor), many more end up working in fields from medicine to mechanical engineering (check out the anthropologists working with robotics engineers on AI). Select which one or more of the following examples was introduced in the video clip.

all of the above * Working in tech or business seems miles apart from being an anthropologist, but Tricia Wang demonstrates why her skills are so valuable in this customer-reliant industries * In order to solve problems and bring about changes in the world, Diego Vigil became an urban anthropologist, he described himself as an observer, listener, or "metiche" in Mexican culture * Frameworks is a sociolinguistic thinktank dedicated to educating and supporting non-profits in more effectively sharing their message like the value of Pre-K * Katharine Chapman Pope is a forensic anthropologist working as a death investigator in Delaware

Often times when we consider causes of death, we think about the health of individuals as being the most important factor when determining one's life expectancy. In reality, however, the most important determining factors are geography and socioeconomic status (i.e. wealth). These factors not only determine what diseases and environmental conditions an individual might be subjected to, but also whether there is adequate preventative and acute care which is accessible to people in the community. For example, it is better to think of "lack of access to medicines and care" rather than "HIV-AIDS" as the cause of death from these viruses. A child born in the developed world has over a 99% chance of surviving to reach puberty, whereas a child in a developing country faces much steeper odds. It has nothing to do with genetics or biology and everything to do with financial luck-of-the-draw. This is clearly illustrated when looking at the break down of causes of death by causal factor. It is here, that the scars of colonization and neocolonial economic repression can be seen on the populations in the poorest parts of the world. In what categories does Sub-Saharan Africa lead the world in deaths (per capita)?

all of the above - Diarrheal diseases (kills mostly children under 5) - Tuberculosis - Malnutrition (kills mostly children) - HIV-AIDS - Malaria (leading cause of death of maternal-aged women and children in this region)

When we consider the free-market, or capitalist system, we often think of the economic levers that balance the system - supply, demand, competition, and consumerism. The idea is that the economic system would police itself by virtue of the mode of production and, in part, it does just that. When we look at history, however, we encounter a complex and, often, violent, monopolistic picture of capitalist enterprise. This is true of the first modern capitalist corporation the VOC (Dutch East India Company). Which one or more of the following were introduced in the Crash Course clip on "Capitalism and the Dutch East India Company".

all of the above - In order to start a business, you need capital (money). This is the biggest roadblock for most people, which is why businesses that have relationships that make capital easier to acquire are often the ones that get off the ground. The question is: where do you get money if you don't already have money or the social relationships to make this possible? One reason the VOC was so successful is because it was funded (in the 1600s) by the Dutch taxpayers with over 100 million dollars. - Being able to access capital for business ventures is made possible through investment, but also through borrowing money. Someone might get a loan from the bank to have the start-up capital for their plan. Access to loans and their interest rates also affected who were able to go into business. For the Dutch, because their economy was strong, their financial institutions could loan money at lower interests rates. This was also a social behavior because interest rates also depended upon the belief that the loans would get repaid. Since the Dutch had already long practiced loaning money to the government via bonds, the social model was well established in the country. - While it might seem like the VOC was a clear and outstanding example of a free-market system at work, in reality it was not a free market, but rather a government subsidized system. The Dutch government provided the capital and board members to begin the corporation and the military strength and diplomatic influence to prevent competition. In order to increase their success, the VOC used this military strength to violently subdue indigenous Indonesian producers and competing British traders. As goes their saying "we cannot carryon trade without war, nor war without trade". - The VOC was a successful capitalist corporation, monopolizing the trade between Europe and the East Indies, while warring with any who stood in their way. At the height of their success, they even proposed ethnically-cleansing certain islands, replacing original inhabitants with slaves captured from other parts of the world in order to dominate production. While the VOC was successful by virtue of it's monopolistic model, it was still subjected to the sway of consumer desires and eventually lost out to Britain due to the desire for sugar and cotton - two trade goods that led to the largest and longest slave-labor supported mode of production in modern history.

Viruses, like SARS-CoV2 pictured here, straddle the line between living and non-living things. Which one or more of the following statements is true about viruses?

all of the above - Unlike bacteria, viruses cannot replicate themselves and, thus, rely on a host organism to propagate their species by causing the host cells to replicate their genetic material. - When a virus enters the body, it can attach to a host's cells because of protein receptors that cover the outside of the virus and match up to the receptors in the host's cells. These are the receptors that evolve when a virus spills over to another species (the receptors adapt to the protein receptors in the new species' body). - Once the virus is attached (note: this varies), it inserts genetic material into the host cell which then replicates the virus. When the viral genetic material exits the cell, it is coated in the protein from the original virus becoming a fully-fledged virus ready to spread to more cells. - A virus can be spread in many ways: from bodily fluid (blood, saliva, sexual fluids, etc), mosquitoes, and through the air. A virus is more virulent if it can spread easily from host to host and has diversified to be able to infect numerous species.

We often take for the granted the idea that there are behaviors we consider "right" and those we consider "wrong" in our society. But how often do we consider that we made all the rules, morals, laws, standards, expectations, and guidance up as we went along. There are many reasons why we made these up - cohesion, peace, stability, economics, belief systems, and so on - but we also need to enforce these made up rules and that is where "social control" does the job. What are some forms of social control described in the Wikipedia article - with my examples?

all of the above Shaming, teasing, ridiculing (think "Mean Girls") Positive reinforcement (think: parent saying "good boy" when a child conforms to expected gender norms0 Incarceration (think: we will take away your freedom if you act in a way society doesn't like - be it murder or speaking your mind) Religion (think: the Ten Commandments - what better reason to follow rules than a supernatural enforcer)

In the capitalist mode of production, unlike domestic or tributary forms, the ____________ are separated from the means of production. This provides little control over the economic system for everyday people.

workers

Parag Khanna makes the case in his TedTalk that megacity clusters are not only changing the demographics of the world, but that they are also fostering a global connectivity revolution. No longer are we dominated by the political geography of the past, rather, the 21st Century is moving toward functional/connective geography. The ever-increasing global networks, facilitated by major investments in infrastructure (poised to surpass defense budgets), help to enhance the importance of urban areas, which by 2030, will be home to 2/3rds the global population. Already, megacity clusters like the one from Tokyo to Osaka in Japan (80 million people) and around the Bohai Rim including Bejing (100 million people), are larger both demographically and financially than most countries in the world. Which one or more of the following are points he made during his talk?

all of the above The post-colonial regions like SouthEast Asia, have redefined their colonial past to form multifaceted interconnections creating what Khanna calls "Pax Aseana" The megacity cluster around Lagos in Nigeria includes whole countries like Ghana as suburbs of cities. We are nearing 50 megacity clusters whose individual GDP would make them more relevant members on the G20 than many current countries The more interconnected we are, the more peaceful we are - which explain why Russia works so hard to destabilize Europe and America - it has the least to lose While these global connectivity enables a global division of labor making the tragedy of disparity close at hand, these same systems can increase well-being through opportunity and networks

Anthropology is the study of humans - from how we evolved as a biological species to the diverse and colorful cultures we've created around the world. One hallmark characteristic of anthropology is that it relies upon fieldwork for gather scientific data (something we'll discuss later on). In cultural anthropology, researchers often spend a great deal of time among their informants, living within the culture they are studying. This provides an intimate and nuanced perspective of culture - very different from the "armchair" intellectuals of the past. Anthropological findings often contradicted those of scientists who drew conclusions about all of humankind from just their own (typically European) culture. Jean Briggs, for example, challenged views of ____________ as a centrally-important human emotion through her studies among the Inuit who do not exhibit this emotion.

anger

Many cultures assign meanings to certain colors, but the meaning for a particular color may be completely different from one culture to another. Western cultures like the United States use the color black to represent death, but in China it is the color white that symbolizes death. White in the United States symbolizes purity and is used for brides' dresses, but no Chinese woman would ever wear white to her wedding. Instead, she usually wears red, the color of good luck. Words in languages are symbolic in the same way. The word key in English is pronounced exactly the same as the word qui in French, meaning "who," and ki in Japanese, meaning "tree." One must learn the language in order to know what any word means. This quality of symbols we refer to as ______________.

arbitrariness

Prehistoric cave art, like that found in Lascaux and Chauvet in France, provides a window into the world of our ancestors. These paintings, like that of naturalists today, often depict the animals that are found within the surrounding environment. While this art may have served many purposes, in all likelihood, this ancient art was magical in nature - depicting our attempts at understanding our purpose and place in the world as well as exerting supernatural influence over it. What were the favored pigments used to draw the animals and

red and black rocks

Using the human body as a canvas for expressions is as old as our species. Paleoanthropologists, for example, have discovered face painting kits dating back tens of thousands of years. Once humans understood skeletal formation, we began molding our skulls - in ancient Peru an elongated skull was considered beautiful (see photo below). While we might think of modifying the body as art only in terms of tattoos, piercings, or the like, many things we do to our bodies are for cosmetic (i.e. artistic) reasons. Select which of the following would likely be considered human body art.

braces body building hair styling makeup

The main reason why race seems to be a biological reality rather than a social construct, is that race has been ____________________ in literature, the media, and culture for more than three hundred years. This concept refers to the process in which an inaccurate concept or idea is so heavily promoted and circulated among people that it begins to take on a life of its own.

reified

In its multi-decade study of ______________ in 19 countries, the World Health Organization concluded that societies that were more culturally accepting of symptoms associated with the illness integrated people suffering from the condition into community life more completely.

schizophrenia

Physical arts, like dancing, playing sports, or human tower building, rely upon the human body to demonstrate skills that are not necessarily used (in that instance anyway) for a purpose other than expression. In other words, we create the expression of these physical skills to give meaning, purpose, and color to our lives. In Spain, people practice all year in large teams building human towers. At the yearly festival, these groups compete to build the most spectacular (and stable) human tower with the largest on the bottom and often tiny children climbing all the way to the top. In the video clip, which team was the winner - completing their whole tower?

green

An example of _____________ could be eye contact. For Americans, eye contact is highly valued as a way to show we are paying attention and as a means of showing respect. But for the Japanese, eye contact is usually inappropriate, especially between two people of different social statuses. The lower status person must look down and avoid eye contact to show respect for the higher status person.

kinesics

When a local variety of a language becomes the most publicly accepted (usually by those who hold the most power in society) in social institutions like the media, education, and government it is referred to as the standard dialect. In some English-speaking countries, this is the dialect spoken by the majority of the population (although not necessarily because it is the most frequent dialect spoken in homes, but it is the most frequently spoken in public like in school or work). This, in turn, leads many people to believe that it is the "standard" because it is the most "correct", "grammatical", or "linguistically valid" and all other dialects as lacking prestige and validity. We call this false belief ______________. Accepting this false belief illustrates how power exists within cultural systems like language; no dialect or accent is more or less linguistically valid than any other.

standard language ideology

The chapter "The Culture Concept" introduces us to the concept of "the other" - a way to describe people whose practices, beliefs, etc. are different from our own - through the example of __________________. Humans "other" each other all the time as a means to develop their own group identity. We can clearly see the focus on "othering" at times of economic distress when groups will try to differentiate themselves and place blame on other groups. In the United States, while we are a country of immigrants, it has long been our tradition to blame the most recent immigrant arrivals (from Chinese to Irish to Mexican) for economic woes our country was facing even when they have never been the cause of the problem.

stories

Human expressions are cultural universals - meaning that in all cultures, humans have found ways of expressing their inward selves outwardly, demonstrating individual, cultural, and societal values. Humans are meaning makers - we color the world around us. Which of the following human expressions are found in all known cultures?

storytelling rhythm

You might be tempted to think your birthday is an objectively important day each year, etched in the time/space of the universe for time immemorial. Well, not so much. Of course, you are important, but birthdays are just made up celebrations to mark time. In some cultures there are no such celebrations - parents won't even know how old their children are that year. In order to make birthdays feel like a special day and, thus, to give purpose to the passage of your life, we need to mark them as being different than any other day. We do this for lots of occasions - think of all the rituals for weddings, the Super Bowl, or Christmas. Take a moment and think about how your birthday was made to feel special - balloons, special food, colorful or themed decorations, and so forth. Basically you covered that day in expressive art to make it different from any other day in the year. Would you care about your birthday if it was like any other day? Probably not. Given this point, one major reason people create art is to make ceremonies and rituals feel more special.

true