General Anthropology Final Exam Study Set

What is the maximum number of sounds that any human language employs?

50

About how many languages have gone extinct over the last 500 years?

6,000

Why are generalized references to human types considered to be statistical abstractions at best?

-No example of "pure" racial types has been found. -Variation is continuous with few sharp breaks between groups. -Variations within groups often exceed variations between groups

At least ____ percent of our communication takes place nonverbally.

60%

What percentage of human societies requires that sex only occur between married partners?

15%

What percent of adults throughout the world consider themselves nonreligious?

16%

Married couples with dependent children makes up which percentage of the total number of households in the United States today?

20%

Why aren't behavioral characteristics attributed to groups of people considered by scientists to be inborn behavioral characteristics?

All behavioral differences observed to date can be better explained in terms of cultural practices.

Why can't scientists choose a set of markers for racial typologies in humans?

Any set of markers would be arbitrary and no set number of genetic markers could be agreed upon to distinguish between races.

The expression of the set of cultural ideas held by an ethnic group is...

Ethnicity

Under the biological definition of race, why do blood types fail to distinguish between human groups?

Blood types are not exclusively found within a single human "race."

Who proposed the idea that all humans have basic biological and psychological needs that must be met by culture, and that only those cultures that could meet these needs would survive?

Bronislaw Malinowski

The belief that ones own culture is superior to all others is known as

Ethnocentrism

The combination of activities. technologies, and ideas that allow people to...

Cultural adaptation

Fill in the Blank. To avoid making ethnocentric judgments, anthropologists adopt the approach of ____________, which requires suspending judgment in order to understand each culture in its own terms

Cultural relativism

What is the difference between a language and a dialect?

Dialects are mutually intelligible while different languages are mutually unintelligible.

A society's shared sense of identity and world view is known as...

False

True or False? Cultures have not always changed over time, it is just in the last hundred years that they have begun to change as a result of globalization

False

True or False? Everything within a culture is uniform. peoples ideas, ...

False

True or False? Gender, as opposed to sex, is a biologically based concept that is not socially constructed.

False

True or False? The creative blending of indigenous and foreign beliefs and practices into new cultural forms is known as tradition.

False

True or False? There have been a few groups found to have absolutely no type of religion or spirituality in the last 100,000 years.

False

True or false? Humans are the only animals that possess cultural behavior.

False

What adaptive advantage is associated with higher melanin levels in lower latitudes?

Higher melanin content offers protection from ultraviolet solar radiation

What biological basis is there for the perception of race?

Humans are hardwired to categorize things, including people.

According to the barrel model, all aspects of a culture fall into one of three broad interrelated categories. These three categories are:

Infrastructure, superstructure, and social structure but not ethnicity.

Why are IQ tests a poor measure of intelligence when used to compare different races?

Intelligence is considered a suite of characteristics and IQ tests only reflect a narrow set of abilities.

The term "Caucasian" was first used to describe individuals of European descent by whom?

Johann Blumenbach

Why do light skinned individuals have a selective advantage at high latitudes?

Lighter skin allows more sunlight to penetrate the skin allowing for greater vitamin D production.

Why don't the results of the Alpha and Beta intelligence tests administered during World War I demonstrate differences in intelligence between races despite higher average scores for Euramericans?

Many African Americans scored higher than most Euramericans and African Americans from urban northern states scored higher than Euramericans from the rural South indicating that there was a significant cultural component to test results.

Which of the following populations would be most likely to be lactose intolerant?

Native Australians and Asians

The idea where one group justifies dehumanizing others based on their noticeable physical characteristics is known as...

Racism

If more than one god is recognized, such as the many gods and goddesses of ancient Greece this is known as...

Polytheism

What factor is closely associated with the retention of the lactase production?

Populations that have a long history of dairy production

English, the Germanic languages, Greek, Russian, Farsi (the most commonly spoken Iranian language) and Italian are all descended from what language family?

Proto-Indo European

An individual who's delusional system is so different that it in no way reflects his or her society's norms, this is known as...

Psychotic

How does a signal differ from a symbol?

Signals have self-evident meaning while symbols are arbitrarily linked to their meaning.

Attitudes toward gender vary cross-culturally.

True

Code switching refers to what?

The process of changing from one language mode to another as the situation demands.

Which of the following statements is true concerning animism and animatism

The spirits involved in animism are neither benevolent nor malevolent.

Which of the following statements are NOT true about the thrifty genotype?

The thrifty genotype was selected through regular acess to glucose

True or False: Shamans differ from priests and priestesses in that priests and priestesses often tell human followers what to do, whereas Shamans make negotiations or communications with spirits.

True

True or false? The purported race of an individual can vary over the course of his or her lifetime.

True

__________ is when an individual is born with only one X chromosome as a sexual set.

Turner syndrome

Where mating is a personal affair, marriage is...

a culturally recognized right.

Bride service is...

a designated period of time when the groom works for the bride's family

Which of the following does NOT distinguish chiefdoms from states?

a shared ecological base

An organized group or groups of interdependent people who generally share a common territory, language, and culture and who act together for collective survival and well-being is known as what?

a society

Androgren insensitivity syndrome can best be described by which of the following?

a syndrome in which a person responds biologically in an abnormal way to male hormones

A particular society consists of kin-ordered groups that share a unifying factor including common ancestry, community, and language. What would this group be considered?

a tribe

Forced cultural change due to military conquest is an example of...

acculturation

Mediation with an unbiased third party making the ultimate decision is known as...

adjudication.

Consanguineal family refers to...

biologically related relatives

Manic depression is now known as __________ in the United States

bipolar disease

Which of the following is not true concerning bridewealth...

bridewealth includes a period of time during which the groom works for the bride's family

Supernatural beliefs are only a basis of political ideology in tribal societies.

false

A man keeps a fallen piece of hair from a woman he despises and wishes later to perform magic on the hair in order to harm that woman. This is an example of which of the following?

contagious magic

Traditional North American feminine traits were identified by Margaret Mead as...

cooperative, nurturing and gentle

A society's shared socially transmitted ideas, values, and perceptions which are used to make sense of experience and generate behavior and are reflected in that behavior is known as...

culture

Referring to things and events removed in time and space is a phenomenon known as...

displacement

Self-awareness is composed of each of the following orientations except...

emotive orientation

Marriage within a particular group or category of individuals is referred to as....

endogamy.

Marriage that occurs with an individual who is not part of one's own group is known as...

exogamy.

What criteria did Carolus Linnaeus use to classify humans into different subspecies?

geography

Egalitarian gender roles are often found in which type of society?

hunting-gathering

The economic foundation of a society is known as...

infrastructure

Spirituality is the same as religion in all of the following ways except...

it requires a distinctive format

Symbols, arbitrary but meaningful relationships between signs and other things, are an important part of culture. What is the most important symbolic aspect of culture?

language

Which of the following allocates the authority to employ coercion in the enforcement of sanctions...

law

The right of political leaders to govern based on the values of a particular society is...

legitimacy

English is one of approximately 140 languages classified in the larger Indo-European language family. This family is subdivided into eleven subgroups, which reflects the fact that there has been a long period of...

linguistic divergence

In an effort to "integrate" Aboriginal Australians the Australian government legally prevented schools from teaching in these languages well into the 20th century. Of what is this an example?

linguistic nationalism

The idea that language to some extent shapes the way in which people perceive and think about the world is...

linguistic relativity

Syntax is identified as the patterns or rules by which __________ are arranged into phrases and sentences.

morphemes

If a woman is married and lives in her husband's father's place of residence, she is living in a...

patrilocal residence

Ranges of acceptable behavior for a person in a society is known as...

normative orientation

A family consisting of one mother, one son, a stepsister, a stepfather, and an adopted daughter is referred to as...

nuclear family

Giggling, groaning or signing, as well as voice qualities such as volume, intensity, pitch and tempo are all examples of...

para-language

My father's brother's child would be my...

parallel cousin.

Conjugal family refers to...

people related through marriage

A band is a small and loosely organized group that is kin-ordered and lives in a specific territory. A band is known to...

periodically split into smaller extended family groups that are politically independent

Throughout human cultures, one of the most important sources of self-identity is known as...

personal name

The smallest unit of sound that makes a difference in meaning is a...

phoneme

In the Cholan Mayan dialect the word "witz" means mountain and the word "pitz" is used for an ancient ballgame played in the area. Given this, what would the sounds w- and p- be considered?

phonemes

The way power is distributed in society is known as...

political organization

A woman in the Himalayas is married to multiple men. This is known as...

polyandry

About 80-85% of world cultures favor what system of marriage?

polygyny

Ministers and rabbis are examples of:

priests

Every culture has distinctive norms for closeness. How close people stand to one another in certain contexts is an example of...

proxemics

Which of the following is not true regarding revolutions...

revolutions always involve armed resistance to authority

Male initiation, such as circumcision is an example of:

rite of passage

The ability humans have to identify themselves individuals is called...

self-awareness

In North America and Europe the most common mating system is...

serial monogamy.

The culture and personality movement was emphasized by all of the following except...

socioeconomic studies

The Amish belong to a(n)..

subculture, society, and ethnic group but not pluralistic society

Which type of economy is most associated with dependence training?

subsistence

A society's shared sense of identity and world view is known as

superstructure

Power is defined as...

the ability of individuals or groups to impose their will upon others.

Enculturation describes which of the following?

the process by which culture is passed on from one generation to the next

What cultural development directly allowed for the development of pluralistic societies?

the rise of the state

Which of the following is not true about myths?

they are always associated with ceremonial practices

An extended family is known as...

two or more closely related nuclear families clustered together in a large domestic group

Examples of sanctions are all of the following except...

winning the lottery

The vast majority of human genetic variation exists...

within groups

In contrast to theology, which focuses on questions concerning the nature of God, gods or goddesses and the interpretation of ancient sacred chants or texts, _________ is the collective body of ideas that members of a culture generally share concerning the ultimate shape and substance of their reality.

worldview