EXAM 1: ANTH 101
What is the difference between "society" and "culture"?
A "society" is a group of people who depend on and interact with one another to achieve certain goals, including survival. "Culture" is the learned behaviors, beliefs and symbols that allow people to live in groups.
Which one of the following statements is true about emic and etic perspectives in anthropology?
An etic perspective examines societies using concepts, categories, and rules derived from science; an outsider's perspective. An emic perspective examines a society using concepts and distinctions that are meaningful to that culture; an insider's perspective.
Which of the following does NOT describe a contemporary anthropological perspective?
Anthropology's perspective is ethnocentric: it compares the social structures of primitive societies to the developed civilizations of North America and Europe to determine the evolutionary progress of different cultures.
The most convincing scientific explanation of the variety and history of life on earth is Natural Selection. The theory of Natural Selection claims all of the following, EXCEPT:
Biological evolution has the clear intention of making the members of any given species bigger, stronger, faster and more intelligent.
The sub-field of anthropology that studies humans as biological organisms, including our evolution and contemporary variation, is called:
Biological or physical anthropology
The sub-field of anthropology that studies how variation in the beliefs and behaviors of members of different societies is shaped by culture, is called:
Cultural anthropology
What is the primary way in which humans adapt to our environments?
Culturally
Which of the following describes the goals of anthropology?
Describe, analyze, and explain different cultures. Understand the similarities and differences among human cultures. Understand the origins and evolutionary history of humans as a species.
The major research tool of cultural anthropology, which includes firsthand fieldwork among people in society and the written results of fieldwork is called:
Ethnography
Beginning with the earliest member of our genus (i.e. Homo), which of the following successions is the most likely representation of the evolution of Homo sapiens?
Homo habilis → Homo erectus → Homo sapiens
The sub-field of anthropology that studies human communication is called:
Linguistic anthropology
In the film Decoding Neanderthals, what explanation is given for the disappearance of Neanderthals?
Neanderthals were absorbed into the Homo sapien population through interbreeding.
Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of culture?
Some cultures are more evolved than others
The ability of Homo erectus to survive in the varying habitats of Ice Age Africa, Asia, and Europe was in large part due to:
The capacity for and development of an increasingly sophisticated and complex culture and technology.
Cultural Relativism refers to:
The perspective that every culture should be understood in its own terms and judged according to its own values.
The sub-field of anthropology that studies past human cultures through their material remains is called:
archaeology
The perspective that one's own culture is superior to other cultures, and that one's own culture should be the standard by which all others are judged is known as:
ethnocentrism
The attempt to find general laws or principles that govern cultural phenomena by making cross-cultural comparisons is called:
ethnology
By 35,000 years ago, Homo sapiens had spread throughout the range of all other Homo species and was the only form remaining. The theory that seeks to explain the transition from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens by arguing that different populations of Homo sapiens are descended from different populations of Homo erectus that inhabited different regions of the world is called the:
multiregional model
The fieldwork technique that involves gathering cultural data by observing people's behavior and participating in their lives is:
participant observation
