ANTH 202: Study Guide Questions (Chapter 2)

Multiple working hypotheses result when: a. several hypotheses potentially explain the same data. b. scientists have no sound hypothesis to test, but end up testing several equally unlikely explanations in order to keep their research moving forward. c. the simplest hypothesis cannot be falsified. d. scientists cannot produce replicable results with the most likely hypothesis.

a. several hypotheses potentially explain the same data.

Anthropology is the study of: a. past human behavior. b. all aspects of humankind. c. humans as biological organisms. d. humans as cultural organisms.

b. all aspects of humankind.

The primary distinction between humanistic and scientific approaches within archaeology revolves around the issue of: a. absolute truth. b. ethical concerns. c. objectivity. d. the definition of culture.

c. objectivity.

Why was it so difficult for Europeans during the early 19th century to accept the fact that Native Americans had built the mounds? a. Believing that a superior race had built the mounds fit nicely into the social and political context of the times, helping to justify colonialism. b. Archaeological and historical evidence to suggest that Native Americans had built the mounds was completely lacking. c. It was a conscious effort on the part of racist archaeologists to steal Native American land; everyone really knew that the Native Americans had built the mounds. d. Westward expansion had not yet begun; European colonists were therefore unfamiliar with how similar the mounds really were to the mounds actively being constructed by living Native Americans.

a. Believing that a superior race had built the mounds fit nicely into the social and political context of the times, helping to justify colonialism.

In science, an idea is testable if the implications of the hypothesis a. can be measured in some fashion with the same results obtained by different observers. b. can be measured with different results obtained by the same observers. c. can be measured with the same results obtained by the same observers. d. cannot be measured.

a. can be measured in some fashion with the same results obtained by different observers.

One of the ways in which anthropologists study culture is through an ideational perspective. An ideational perspective: a. focuses on ideas, symbols, and mental structures as driving forces in shaping human behavior. b. emphasizes technology, ecology, demography, and economics as driving forces in shaping human behavior. c. argues that while human behavior is definitely shaped by ideas, symbols, and mental structures, it is equally shaped by technology, ecology, demography, and economics. d. argues that the forces shaping human behavior are largely unknowable; therefore any perspective is just as good as another.

a. focuses on ideas, symbols, and mental structures as driving forces in shaping human behavior.

The Moundbuilder Myth provides an example of: a. how the social, cultural, and political context of archaeology can influence its theories. b. the infallibility of science. c. how more civilized cultures (the Moundbuilders) can be destroyed by less civilized cultures (the Native Americans). d. how pseudoarchaeology can be useful to professional archaeologists.

a. how the social, cultural, and political context of archaeology can influence its theories.

The level of theory that includes the observations and interpretations that emerge from hands-on archaeological field and lab work is called: a. low-level theory. b. middle-level theory. c. high-level theory. d. Multiple-level theory..

a. low-level theory.

The first scientific archaeologist in America who attempted to determine the identity of the Moundbuilders by actually excavating a mound was: a. Ephraim Squier. b. Thomas Jefferson. c. Cyrus Thomas. d. John Wesley Powell.

b. Thomas Jefferson.

The symbolic nature of culture: a. facilitates cross-cultural communication, because all cultures use the same (or very similar) symbols to mean the same things. b. can create considerable misunderstanding between people from different cultures. c. is now known to be not as significant as anthropologists once believed. d. is easily discernable from the archaeological record.

b. can create considerable misunderstanding between people from different cultures.

The difference between inductive and deductive reasoning is: a. deductive reasoning involves working from specific observations to more general hypotheses, while inductive reasoning involves reasoning from theory to account for specific observational or experimental results. b. deductive reasoning involves reasoning from theory to predict specific observational or experimental results, while inductive reasoning involves working from specific observations to more general hypotheses. c. deductive reasoning is scientific and logical, while inductive reasoning is based on faith. d. there is no difference between the two; they are alternate names for the same kind of reasoning.

b. deductive reasoning involves reasoning from theory to predict specific observational or experimental results, while inductive reasoning involves working from specific observations to more general hypotheses.

The following statement is true about Postprocessual archaeology: a. Explanations are explicitly scientific and objective. b. Attempts to remain ethically neutral; claims to be explicitly nonpolitical. c. Less enthusiastic about scientific methods and denies possibility of objectivity. d. Views culture from a systemic perspective and defines culture as adaptation.

c. Less enthusiastic about scientific methods and denies possibility of objectivity.

Low-level theory begins with archaeological objects and a. generates irrelevant facts or data about those objects and that will not be important to later analyses. b. generates relevant facts or data about those objects that will not be important to later analyses. c. generates relevant facts or data bout those objects that will be important to later analyses. d. does not generate facts or data.

c. generates relevant facts or data bout those objects that will be important to later analyses.

Middle-level theory in archaeology: a. is a logical ordering of cultures through time, based on analysis and classification of artifact types. b. links a modern culture to an ancient one. c. is a logical statement linking observations on the static archaeological record to the dynamic behavior or natural processes that produced it. d. links the concept of culture to artifact types.

c. is a logical statement linking observations on the static archaeological record to the dynamic behavior or natural processes that produced it.

Archaeology can best be defined as the study of: a. humans in all times and places. b. the biological aspect of humans. c. the past through the systematic recovery and analysis of material remains. d. past and present human cultures through written records and oral history.

c. the past through the systematic recovery and analysis of material remains.

Participant observation is: a. an archaeological teaching strategy where students are introduced to excavation techniques by participating in real archaeological digs. b. a research strategy employed by linguistic anthropologists to help revive dying languages. c. the primary strategy of cultural anthropologists in which data are gathered by questioning and observing people while the observer lives in their society. d. a research strategy mostly employed by biological anthropologists while studying human biological variation.

c. the primary strategy of cultural anthropologists in which data are gathered by questioning and observing people while the observer lives in their society.

Which of the following is not true of a person's culture? a. It is learned. b. It is shared. c. It is symbolic. d. It is biologically controlled.

d. It is biologically controlled.

Which of the following is not a step in the scientific method? a. Define a relevant research problem b. Generate one or more hypotheses c. Test the hypothesis or hypotheses with relevant data d. Prove the hypothesis or hypotheses true

d. Prove the hypothesis or hypotheses true

What makes an anthropologist an anthropologist? a. Studying native people b. Studying fossils c. Studying chimpanzees d. Using a global, comparative and holistic approach

d. Using a global, comparative and holistic approach

Which of the following is untrue about paradigms? a. Paradigms provide specific guidelines for high-level theory. b. Paradigms generate more specific claims about a regions' prehistory. c. Like culture, paradigms provide understandings of the world. d. Paradigms do not reflect bias.

still figuring out the answer. not c tho.