Anthro Exam 2
What is a disease?
A scientifically identified health threat
Anthropologists agree that cultural learning is uniquely elaborated among humans and that all humans have culture. They also accept a doctrine designated in the 19th century as the "psychic unity of man." What does this doctrine mean?
Although individuals differ in their emotional and intellectual capacities, all human populations have equivalent capacities for culture
In understanding the problems with attempts at human racial classification, why is it important to understand the difference between genotype and phenotype?
Attempts at human racial classification have typically used phenotypic traits like skin color as markers of common ancestry, but many such traits do not reflect shared genetic material. Instead, they are often the result of different populations biologically adapting to similar environmental stressors in similar ways.
In understanding the problems that have arisen in attempts at human racial classification, why is it important to understand the difference between genotype and phenotype?
Attempts at human racial classification typically used phenotypic traits like skin color as markers of common ancestry, but many such traits do not reflect the existence of shared genetic material. Instead, they are often the result of different populations biologically adapting to similar environmental stressors in similar ways.
What do anthropologists mean when they say culture is shared?
Culture is an attribute of individuals as members of groups
Which of the following is NOT true about culture?
Culture is passed on genetically to future generations
What is the term for policies and practices that harm a coup and its members?
Discrimination
Which of the following statements about ethnicity is true?
Ethnicity is ones identification with a group that shares a common set of beliefs, values, customs, and norms
What term refers to the destruction of the culture of an ethnic group
Ethnocide
What is the term for the use of force by a dominant group to compel a minority to adopt the dominate culture?
Forced assimilation
What is the term for the arbitrary rule that automatically places the children of a union between members of different socioeconomic groups into the less privileged group?
Hypo descent
Which of the following is a major difference between Brazilian and U.S. racial taxonomies?
In the United States, social race is determined at both and does not change, but in Brazil ones race can change from day to day
What is the commonly stated goal for most development projects?
Increased equity
What is a phenotypic adaption, and what makes it possible?
It happens when adaptive changes occur during an individual's lifetime. It is made possible by human biological plasticity, our ability to change in response to the environments we encounter as we grow
Which of the following statements about enculturation is NOT true?
It is the exchange of cultural features that results when two or more groups come into consistent firsthand contact
The Basque people, one of Europe's most distinctive ethnic groups, have maintained a strong ethnic identity and a language that is unrelated to any other known language. However, Basque faces the same pressures all minority languages do:
Knowledge of the national language—in this case Spanish or French—is essential, and most education, publishing, and broadcasting is in the national language
Which of the following is a reason that the Madagascar project to increase rice production was successful?
Malagasy leaders were of the peasantry and were therefore prepared to follow the descent-group ethic of pooling resources for the good of the group as a whole
Which of the following is NOT one of the fields of study mentioned in the textbook as part of the multidisciplinary approaches used in physical anthropology and archaeology?
Metaphysics
the presence of ethnic neighborhoods indicates what kind of coexistence?
Multiculturalism
What term refers to a culture that shares a single language, religion, history, territory, ancestry, and kinship?
Nation
What is the term for ethnicgroups that once had, or witsh to have or regain, autonomous political status?
Nationalities
Darwin and Wallace simultaneously proposed which of the following theoretical models?
Natural Selection
What term refers to an organisms evident traits, its "manifest biology"?
Phenotype
Which of the following statements about the concept of race in Brazil is not true?
Racial classification in Brazil is built around the concept of hypo descent
What term describes a complex sociopolitical system that administers a territory and populace having substantial contrasts in occupation, wealth, prestige, and power?
State
Which of the following statements about human skin color is not true?
The amount of melanin in the skin affects the body's ability to process lactose
Which of the following statements about human skin color is NOT true?
The amount of melanin in the skin affects the body's ability to process lactose.
Which of the following is true about medical anthropology?
This growing field considers the biocultural context and implications of disease and illness
haplogroup
a biological lineage defined by a specific cluster of genetic traits that occur together
Traditional racial classification assumed that biological characteristics such as skin color were determined by heredity and remain stable over many generations. We know that
a biological similarity such as skin color is also the result of natural selection working among different populations that face similar environmental challenges.
What is an illness?
a condition of poor health perceived by an individual
Anthropology may improve psychological studies of human behavior by contributing
a cross-cultural perspective on models of human psychology
Race, like ethnicity in general, is
a cultural category rather than a biological reality
Depending on the situation, the same man might declare: "Im Jimmy's father"; "Im your boss"; "Im African American"; or "Im your professor". This phenomenon, whereby a persons claimed or perceived identity varies depending on context, is called
a situational negotiation of social identity
Based on his observations that contact between neighboring tribes had existed since humanity's beginnings and covered enormous areas, Franz Boas argued
against treating cultures as isolated phenomena
informed consent
agreement to take part in research, after being fully informed about it
Ethnicity means identification with
and feeling part of, a cultural tradition and exclusion from other cultural traditions
An anthropological understanding of ethnicity and race requires exploring how people and institutions define, negotiate, and even challenge their identities in society. One way anthropologists and social scientist in general do this is by studying status, which refers to
any position, no matter what its prestige, that someone occupies in society
In Japan, the burakumin
are Japanese citizens of mixed ancestry who face discrimination
Nation-states
are defined by their lack of ethnic identity
The intelligent design (ID) movement asserts that life forms are too complex to have been formed by natural processes and must therefore have been created by a higher intelligence. Attempts have been made to teach ID as an alternative theory to Darwinian evolution in biology classes in several states in the United States. However,
as a Pennsylvania district judge ruled in a 2005 case, ID violates the ground rules of science by invoking supernatural causation and making assertions that cannot be tested or falsified, and thus does not belong in a school's science curriculum
Mutations are the most important source of variety on which natural selection depends and operates.There are two forms of mutations,
called base substitution mutation and chromosomal rearrangement
bone biology
central to physical anthropology--the study of bone as a biological tissue, including its genetics; cell structure, growth, development and decay and patterns of movement
cultural resource management
come in to salvage what information they can from a site before construction takes place
Culture can be adaptive or maladaptive. It is maladaptive when
cultural traits, patterns, and inventions threaten the group's continued survival and reproduction and thus its very existence
Which of the following statements about U.S. racial categories is true? They are
culturally arbitrary, even though most people assume them to be based in biology
Which of the following statements about purported attempts to assign humans to discrete racial categories based on common ancestry is true? They are
culturally arbitrary, even though most people assume them to be based in biology
The human capacity for culture has an evolutionary basis that extends back at least 2.5 million years. This date corresponds to
early toolmakers whose products survive in the archaeological record
relative dating
established a time frame in relation to other strata or materials rather than absolute dates in numbers
absolute dating
establishing dates in numbers or ranges of numbers--C14
According to Fredrik Barth's theories about ethnic identity, when are ethnic boundaries most stable? When
ethnic groups occupy different ecological niches
The tendency to view one's own culture as superior and to use one's own standards and values in judging others is called
ethnocentrism
Adaptive traits are
favored by natural selection
Ethnography is the
fieldwork component of cultural anthropology
In theory, a biological race is a geographically isolated subdivision of a species. Humanity (Homo sapiens) lacks such races because
human populations have not been isolated enough from one another to develop such discrete groups
In anthropology, cultural relativism is not a moral position but a methodological one. It states that
in order to understand another culture fully, we must try to understand how the people in that culture see things.
Bregmann's rule states that average body size tends to
increase in cold climates and decrease in hot ones.
According to Allen's rule, the relative size of protruding body parts, including limbs, ears, tails, fingers, and toes,
increases with temperature
Culture
is acquired by humans as members of society through the process of enculturation
anthropometry
is the measurement of human body parts and dimensions, including skeletal parts (osteometry)
The presence of more efficient respiratory systems to extract oxygen from the air among human populations living at high elevations is an example of which form of adaption?
long-term physiological adaptation
bioarchaeology
may complement the picture of ancient life at a particular site by examining human skeletons to construct their physical traits, health status, and diet
Ethnic groups that once had, or wish to have or regain, autonomous political stays-their own country--are called
nationalities
East Asians who have immigrated recently from India and Pakistan to northern areas of the Unitied Kingdom have a higher incidence of rickets and osteoporosis than the general British population. This phenomenon illustrates that
natural selection continues today
Which of the following statements about natural selection is NOT true?
natural selection operates directly on genetic variety
excavation
one of the two basic field-work strategies--digging through layers at a site--expensive and time consuming so they do it for a purpose (endangered or specific research)
systematic survey
one of the two basic field-work strategies--study of settlement patterns over a large area
What is an ascribed status? A status that
people have little or no choice about occupying
In the early 20th century, the anthropologist Franz Boas described changes in skull conformation among the children of Europeans who had emigrated to North America. He found that the reason for these changes could not be explained by genetics. His findings underscore the fact that
phenotypic similarities and differences do not necessarily have a genetic basis
In 1998, the American Anthropological Association issued a statement on race. This statements makes all of the following points except that
physical variations in the human species have no meaning beyond the social ones that humans put on them
Advances in technology enable archaeologists to gather evidence that is not visible to the naked eye. One example of such microscopic evidence is the study of
phytoliths, microscopic crystals found in many plants that are inorganic and do not decay, which means that they can reveal which plants were present at a given site even when no other plant remains survive.
All of the following are proper roles for applied anthropologists EXCEPT
placing the cultural values of the local people above everybody else's cultural values
phytolith
plant stone- found in many plants (inorganic)
What term does anthropologist Fredrik Barth use to refer to a society that combines ethnic contrasts, ecological specialization, and the economic interdependence of those groups?
plural society
What term is synonymous with applied anthropologists?
practicing anthropologists
Which of the folioing is the most likely reason for the dark skin color shared by topical Africans and southern Indians?
prevention of hypervitaminosis D
Organizations in the United States such as the National Association for the advancement of colored people and the national council of La Raza, a hispanic advocacy group, have opposed adding a "multiracial'' census category. this suggests that
racial classification is all about cultural pride
superposition
relative chronology is based on this (oldest layer is at the bottom)
fossils
remains, traces, or impressions of ancient life
As humans organize their lives and adapt to different environments, our abilities to learn, think symbolically, use language, and employ tools (technology) and other products
rest on certain features of human biology that make culture, which is not itself biological, possible
flotation
soil is passed through screens to ensure the gathering of small remains such as fish bones and carbonized plant remains--hard to do so limited
palynology
study of ancient plants and environments through pollen samples
taphonomy
study of processes affecting remains of dead animals
An examination of racial taxonomies from around the world indicates that
the classification of racial types is an arbitrary and culturally specific process
An examination of racial taxonomies from around the world would indicate that
the classification of racial types is an arbitrary and culturally specific process
A policy of ethnic expulsion aims at removing from a country groups who are culturally different. There are many examples, including Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 1990s; Uganda expelling 74,000 Asians in 1972, and so on. The neofascist parties of contemporary western Europe advocate the repatriation of immigrant workers. What is one of the potential consequences of such policies?
the creation of refugees—people who have been forced or have chosen to flee a country, to escape persecution or war
The incest taboo is a cultural universal, but
the definition of what constitutes incest varies widely across cultures
What is anthropology?
the exploration of human diversity in time and space
Host country
the place where the research takes place (often teams include research from several countries)
stratigraphy
the science that examine the ways in which earth sediments accumulate in layers known as strata
paleontology
the study of ancient life through the fossil record
paleopathology
the study of disease and injury in skeletons from archaeological sites
paleoanthropology
the study of human evolution through the fossil record
For natural selection to work on particular population
there must be genetic and phenotypic variety within that population
Why are genetics and evolution so important to anthropology?
they help anthropologists document and explain human biological diversity
dendrochronology
tree-ring dating--form of absolute dating
remote sensing
use of aerial photos and satellite images to locate sites on the ground
molecular anthropology
uses genetics analysis to assess evolutionary links
Data collected using systematic surveys do NOT typically address which of the following questions?
what is the relative chronology of the layers exposed during excavation?
stratigraphy
when excavating, it is the layers of deposits that make up a site
