Quiz #1

When did the hominoids first appear?

Miocene

What do anthropologists mean when they refer to peasant economies?

communities that are somewhat more commercialized than traditional subsistence economies

Which societies tend to show more warmth and affection toward their children?

foraging

What signs have archaeologists uncovered that suggest religious belief dates back to nearly 60,000 years ago?

grave goods

Most societies with social ranking practice __________.

herding or agriculture

Anthropology is literally the study of __________.

humans

The controversial Sapir-Whorf hypothesis proposes that __________.

language affects how individuals in a society perceive and conceive reality

The term ethnicity involves a group of people emphasizing shared __________.

language, history, and culture

Patrilineal societies, but not matrilineal societies, tend to be __________.

locally exogamous

The goal of interpretive anthropology is to __________.

understand what it means to be a person living in a particular culture

A phratry is a __________ descent group composed of supposedly related __________.

unilineal; clans

Beliefs about what is, or is not, a supernatural occurrence __________.

vary within a society over time

Which of the following is a common cultural idea about art in our own society?

Anything useful is not art

Why do most societies not have a word for art?

Art is often an integral part of religious, social, and political life.

What is the difference between a paleontologist and a paleoanthropologist?

Paleontologists study many different types of animals, while paleoanthropologists focus on humans and their relatives.

How are members of a lineage connected?

They can trace descent from a common ancestor through known links.

Why is it so difficult to pinpoint the emergence of the earliest languages?

Written language only appeared about 5,000 years ago.

While English has 26 letters, it has __________ significant sounds.

about 40

Which of the following may be trained in any or all of the subfields of anthropology?

applied anthropologist

Into what principal types of political organization did Elman Service suggest most societies could be classified?

bands, tribes, chiefdoms, states

Which of the following is the most common economic marriage transaction cross-culturally?

bride price

What are the ultimate sources of all cultural change?

discovery and invention

Societies with tribal political organization are similar to band societies in their tendency to be __________.

egalitarian

Which type of society is most likely to incorporate nonvoluntary associations?

egalitarian

Which anthropological term may be used in place of socialization?

enculturation

Which subdiscipline is now frequently referred to as simply "cultural anthropology"?

ethnology

According to the __________ theory, men tend to do more dangerous work because the loss of men is less disadvantageous reproductively than the loss of women.

expendability

The most powerful transmitter of culture is probably __________.

language

The Y-5 pattern of hominids refers to a feature on the __________.

molars

The more stratified and complex a society is, the __________.

more voluntary associations it is likely to have

The main process that increases the frequency of adaptive traits through time is called __________.

natural selection

Natural selection cannot account for the variation in frequency of __________ traits.

neutral

The observable appearance of a pea plant is called its __________.

phenotype

Of the following forms of marriage, the rarest is __________.

polyandry

Which type of society generally has the most favorable view of gender equality?

post-industrial societies

Participant-observation refers to the __________.

practice of immersing oneself in the language and customs of a society

What do anthropologists call the transformation of resources into food, tools, and other goods?

production

Which of the following is a universally ascribed quality?

sex

Some polygynous societies try to reduce competition by practicing sororal polygyny, which is when the co-wives are __________.

sisters

Anthropological research can be classified by its __________ and __________ scope.

spatial; temporal

What is racism?

the belief that some "races" are inferior to others

What is culture?

the customary ways that a particular population or society thinks and behaves

The traditional explanation for the emergence of primates relates to an adaptation for __________.

tree living

The way a society __________ is sometimes apparent in its choice and use of artistic materials.

views its environment

Charles Darwin was not the first person to discuss evolutionary processes, but he is famous because he __________.

was the first to provide a comprehensive, well-documented explanation of natural selection