Cultural Anthropology-Take Home Quiz 1

Adaptation

A change in biological structure of life ways of an individual or population by which it becomes better fitted to survive and reproduce in its environment.

Value

A culturally defined idea of what is true, right, and beautiful.

Informant

A person from whom an anthropologist gathers data.

Diffusion

A spread of cultural elements from one culture to another through cultural contact.

Structural anthropology

A theoretical perspective that holds that all cultures reflect similar deep, underlying patterns and that anthropologists should attempt to decipher these patterns.

From the perspective of ecological functionalism, the Hindu taboo on eating beef is:

Adaptive to the long-run conditions of drought and crop shortage in India

Native anthropologist

An anthropologist who does fieldwork in his/her own culture.

Norm

An ideal cultural pattern that influneces behavior in a society.

Today, most anthropologists agree that culture is:

Anthropologists do not agree on a single meaning of culture.

Which of the following correctly identifies the sub-disciplines of anthropology?

Archaeology, Cultural Anthropology, Physical Anthropology, Applied Anthropology and Linguistics.

Malinowski's and Boas' practices or anthropology were alike in many ways as well. All of the following are things that they shared except:

Both valued the study of history as essential to a deeper understand of societies

Karen houses are generally:

Built without windows.

In anthropology,the issue of human rights:

Can be difficult, as different cultures define rights differently.

Lewis of Henry Morgan and Edward Tylor were influenced deeply by the evolutionary theories of:

Charles Darwin

A child raised outside of human society and culture would be;

Completely unable to understand culture.

Paleoanthropology

Concern with tracing the evolution of human kind in the fossil record.

Holistic

Considers culture, history, language, and biology essential to a complete understanding of human society.

Norms and values are both:

Constantly changing and open to re-negotiation.

All of the following statements about the understanding of culture in anthropology are correct except:

Culture is biologically and genetically transmitted from person to person.

The Ju'hoansi people of Nambia are an example of how the spread of AIDS is influenced:

Economic conditions

Applying one's own cultural standards of value, worth and morality to another culture is called:

Ethnocentrism

In place of the artificially controlled laboratory, anthropologists rely primarily on:

Ethnography and cross-cultural comparison.

Collaborative anthropology

Ethnography that gives priority to informants on the topic, methodology, and written results of research.

Ethnocentrism is the tendency for:

Every society to view itself as superior to others.

What is hubris?

Excessive pride of confidence that leads to arrogance and insolence.

All human beings belong to a discrete number of races.

False

Anthropologists believe that there is no such thing as a cultural universal.

False

Anthropologists generally agree that they should defend western notions of human rights.

False

Anthropologists only study contemporary, living peoples.

False

Because he understood Karen culture, anthropologist James Hamilton was able to make many improvement to Karen house building.

False

Bronislaw Malinowski spent only 6 months on the Trobriand islands.

False

Conflict is present in large hierarchical societies, but absent in small egalitarian societies.

False

Culture is human behavior that is genetically transmitted.

False

Engaged anthropologists refrain from choosing sides in political contests.

False

Ethnocentrism is always bad.

False

Inuit children are protected from the harsh environment and physical challenges until it is time for them to transition into adulthood.

False

Language has many symbolic components, but it is not considered a symbol system.

False

Language is a human symbol system for communication, but it is not considered a means of cultural transmission.

False

Members of the cultures that anthropologists study rarely have access to news of the outside world.

False

Project Camelot was a great example of collaborative success between anthropology and the U.S. military.

False

The American Anthropological Association's current Code of Ethics has worked well in situations of violence and political danger.

False

The Human Terrain Systems was a successful project that allowed anthropologists to work alongside soldiers during war so that cultural sensitivity in the ranks could be maintained

False

Today, in an effort to better understand the foundations of violence, anthropologists tend to remain as politically and socially isolated as possible during fieldwork.

False

Culture shock

Feelings of alienation and helplessness that result from rapid immersion in a new and different culture.

Pure cultures, free from outside influence:

Have never existed.

A positive value of ethnocentrism for society is that it:

Helps members of society bond together as a social unit.

Norms are best described as:

Ideas people in a society share about the way things ought to be done.

Genetic studies indicate:

Individual differences are greater than the sum of differences between groups.

What is the 'gray zone' that Philippe Bourgeois describes in his work among the homeless and drug addicts in San Francisco?

It is a morally ambiguous space that blurs the lines between victims and perpetrators.

Some anthropologists argue that football is so popular in America because:

It manipulates dangerous and controversial themes in American culture.

Ethnocentrism

Judging other cultures from the perspective of one's own culture.

The attitude toward magic and ritual among the Nacirema indicates that:

North American society contains very little magic and ritual.

Prehistoric

Societies for which we have no usable records.

Symbol

Something that stands for something else.

All of the following are ways that globalization has affected anthropology except:

Studies today are more holistic and tend to focus on the particular and specific characteristics of the societies in which the anthropologist is researching.

Ethnography

The description of a society or culture.

Participant observation

The fieldwork technique that involves gathering cultural data by observing people's behavior and participating in their lives.

Field work

The firsthand, systematic exploration of a society.

To say that anthropology is holistic means that anthropologists are particularly interested in:

The integration of biological, socio-cultural, and environmental facts in explaining human behavior.

Culture

The learned behaviors and symbols that allow people to live in groups.

Ethnography

The major research tool of cultural anthropology.

Cultural relativism

The notion that culture should be analyzed with reference to their own histories and values rather than according to the values of other cultures.

Social birth refers to:

The point where a person is considered a human being and a member of human society.

Enculturation

The process of learning to be a member of a particular cultural group.

Informed consent

The requirement that participants in anthropological studies should understand the ways in which their participation and the release of the research data are likely to affect them.

For the academic community, critical problem with secret research is:

The scientific community has no way to assess its validity.

Vincent Lyon-Callo's work with homeless people stresses:

The structural causes of homelessness.

Ethnobotany is:

The study of the ways member of different culture classify plants.

Functionalism

The theory that specific cultural institutions function to support the structure of society or serve the needs of individuals in society.

Transculturation

The transformation of adopted cultural traits, resulting in new cultural forms.

As culture traits mo e from one society to another:

Their meanings tend to change.

Delmos Jones' study of voluntary organizations among an African-American community in the United States showed home that:

There was considerable dissent between leadership of the organizations and the members.

Traits such as skin color, hair color and texture, an nose shape are often chosen to determine race because:

They are easily visible.

One important use of applied archaeology mention in the text is:

To increase agricultural yields by revitalizing ancient irrigation techniques.

A subculture is a group that has differing values and beliefs from the dominant culture in the same society.

True

All humans live in cultures.

True

Applied anthropologists are usually trained in one of the four primary sub disciplines.

True

Child-rearing practices in all cultures are designed to produce knowledgeable adults.

True

Ethnosciences is a theoretical approach that focuses on the way in which members of a culture classify their world.

True

Fully understanding and issue requires using many theoretical perspectives

True

Interpretive anthropologists would argue that football is a sport that is heavily laden with sexuality.

True

It is common for anthropologists to feel confused and disoriented when they first arrive to their field sites.

True

Most anthropological data comes in the form of extensive field notes, audio recordings, and photographs.

True

One example of transculturation is when young people in the Middle East use social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to show the repression occurring within their countries.

True

Philip Bourgois' work with the homeless and drug addicts in San Francisco has led to a better understanding of issues of economic change, cultural structures, and the effects on individual lives.

True

Sir Edward Tylor's early definition of culture was intended as a way of explaining the differences between human societies.

True

The HRAF is an attempt to facilitate cross cultural analysis.

True

The gathering and interpretation of information based on intensive, first hand study is called ethnography.

True

Today, virtually all anthropologist rely on Boas' basic and fundamental insights into the discipline.

True

One advantage of cultural adaptation over biological adaptation is that culture can usually change more rapidly than biology.

True.

Cultural relativism requires that:

Values and customs be understood in terms of the culture of which they are a part.

Society

a group of people who depend on one another for survival of well-being.

Why did anthropology pay little attention to women prior to the 1970's?

anthropologist were all male and there were no women available to study other women

Artifact

any object made or modified by human beings- objects made by past cultures.

Anthropological interview techniques:

are highly varied and are situation- specific

Engaged anthropology

includes political action as a major goal of fieldwork.

Ethnology

the attempt to find general principles or laws that govern cultural phenomena.

Racism

the belief that some human populations are superior to others because of inherited, genetically transmitted characteristics.