Anthropology Module 4
What percent of people living today had ancestors who lived in societies with band level political systems?
100%
Intensive agricultural first began about ___________ years ago.
5,000
When did the transition from acephalous bands and tribes to chiefdoms begin?
8,000-10,000 years ago
How are difficult disputes between people living in a chiefdom usually settled if an informal agreement cannot be reached by the parties?
A chief usually functions as an arbitrator and judge.
According to this tutorial, what was the main reason that our ancestors first developed domesticated food plants and began farming.
A combination of a changing climate and human over population made it necessary.
Ancient civilizations based on intensive agriculture developed in all of the following regions except:
Australia
Why do horticulturalists usually have a shifting pattern of field use? That is, why do they abandon their gardens after a few years and create new ones elsewhere?
Because production drops due to the inevitable depletion of soil nutrients in the old field
Where in the world is horticulture commonly used as a subsistence pattern today?
Central Africa and the Amazon Basin of South America
What was the main argument of the coercive theory of early state formation? This theory was developed in the 1970's by Robert Carneiro.
Centralized state governments developed to mobilize and direct armies which would continue to exist as tools for controlling conquered peoples, collecting tribute, and allocating resources.
Which of the following statements is true concerning foragers?
Foragers generally have a passive dependence on what the environment contains.
Equestrian foraging societies existed in which of the following regions?
Great Plains of North America grasslands of Southern Argentina
Which of the following statements is true of a specialized foraging subsistence pattern?
It can be a very risky way of life in a changing environment.
Which of the following statements is true of commerce between small-scale societies in the past?
It involved more institutionalized balanced reciprocity than is found generally in the international trade system today.
Around 4,500-5,500 years ago, kingdoms with state level political systems developed into ancient civilizations in which of the following areas?
Mesopotamia
Where did indigenous tribal level societies have leaders called "big men"?
New Guinea
The most well known aquatic foraging societies in the Americas live on the ___________________________ .
Northwest Coast of North America
In North America and other large-scale industrial nations, there have been major changes in the typical family during the last century. These changes include:
Nuclear family households have become more common.
Which of the following statements is true?
Over the 21st century, much of the world very likely will face severe shortages, including those of food, drinking water, arable land, and petroleum based fuels.
Which of the following statements is true regarding the ancient civilizations?
Ownership of property shifted from the community to individuals.
Which of the following statements is true of reciprocal gift exchanges in all societies?
Participants in a gift exchange agree to receive a gift and repay it with another.
Which of the following pastoralists herded reindeer?
Saami or Lapps
Which of the following statements is true of the aquatic foragers of the Northwest Coast of North America?
Settlements were usually permanent rather than seasonal.
Which of the following statements is true concerning pastoralists?
The animals herded by pastoralists are rarely killed for family use alone.
In the U.S. and other economically powerful nations, we are now moving into a post-industrial information-based economy. Which of the following has been a result of this economic change?
The economic and political power of women has risen. There has been an increasing emphasis on mental rather than hard physical labor.
Which of the following statements is true of pedestrian foragers?
The pedestrian foraging way of life was highly mobile.
Gift giving is a common form of non-market exchange within small-scale societies. Which of the following statements is true concerning this sort of exchange?
The primary motivation for this form of economic exchange in small-scale societies is not economic but social.
What usually has happened to tropical horticulturalists when population pressure and/or governments prevented them from following their traditional shifting pattern of farming?
The productivity of their crops dropped dramatically due to extreme soil nutrient depletion and the people became impoverished.
Which of the following things resulted from international commerce during the last two centuries?
There has been an enormous redistribution of wealth to the industrialized nations located mostly in the Northern Hemisphere
During the 20th century, most national governments tried to force pastoralists to stop their migrations and to reduce the size of their herds in order to prevent over-grazing. What has been the result of this?
These efforts at controlling them have been consistently resisted by pastoralists.
In what way are chiefdoms similar to bands and tribes?
They are mostly classless societies.
Which of the following statements is true concerning non-market economies?
They are typically found in small-scale, isolated societies.
Which of the following statements is true of non-market economies?
They can only survive in isolation from the market economies of large-scale societies.
Which of the following statements is true of historically known foraging societies?
They intentionally burned grasslands and woodlands.
Which of the following traits are typical of pastoralist men around the world?
They usually have the ability to make important economic decisions quickly and to act on them independently without hesitation. They tend to be cooperative with each other and aggressive towards outsiders.
Which of the following statements is true of band leaders?
They usually only have temporary political power.
Which of the following is true of North American cattle ranchers today?
They usually share with traditional pastoralists the same basic outlook on life and also value strong male personalities.
Which of the following statements is true concerning equestrian foraging societies?
They were male dominated.
Which of the following statements is true of bands?
Typically, there is no leadership position in bands that has the authority to conclusively settle disputes, punish criminals, or prevent families from leaving.
The Kula Ring was ____________________________________________ .
a closed trading system among the Trobriand Islanders in which only recognized senior male trading partners from each island could be expedition leaders
"Slash and burn" refers to:
a method of field preparation for farming
A general term for relatively simple political systems in which power is diffused throughout the society.
acephalous
Formal market places are rare in isolated, small-scale societies because ______________________________________ .
all of the above
The transition to intensive agriculture leading to the development of the ancient civilizations ultimately resulted in a number of inevitable major social changes including:
all of the above
Which of the following are examples of economic redistributive systems?
all of the above
Which of the following statements concerning slaves in the ancient civilizations in Egypt and Mesopotamia is true?
all of the above
Which of the following things are usually considered to be important gifts in small-scale societies with non-market economies?
all of the above
Which of the following things occurred at traditional Kwakiutl potlatches?
all of the above
Which of the following traits would likely be found in pastoralists societies?
all of the above
Which of the following statements is true of tribes?
all of the above are true
The simplest kind of political system for a society is a:
band
What level of political integration would be expected to exist in a society in which the total number of people does not exceed a few dozen and there is no economic class differentiation.
band
If, after several minutes of negotiation, you agree to trade three music CD's with a friend for his used copy of the textbook needed in your cultural anthropology class, it would be an example of ______________ .
barter
As some horticultural societies of the past developed more intensive agricultural subsistence patterns when their populations grew into the thousands, they were forced to create new levels of political integration in order to maintain unity and order. Which of the following did they develop first?
chiefdom
How does someone in a pedestrian foraging band usually become a political leader for the community?
community consensus arrived at through casual discussion
Standard economic analysis is inadequate in explaining how and why non-market economies function within societies that have them because ____________________________________________ ?
economic profit is not the major motive for exchanging and distributing goods and services in these societies
In which of the following variations of foraging would people most likely concentrate their subsistence efforts on hunting large mammals from horseback?
equestrian
Which of the following would fit the definition of balanced reciprocity in North America today?
exchanging Christmas gifts with your best friend at an office party
The most common form of exchange in non-market economies between friendly small-scale societies is ________________________________ .
face to face barter
About how many band level societies survive today with their traditional form of political organization intact?
few if any
Which of the following is the oldest human subsistence pattern?
foraging
Marshall Sahlins observed that there are three distinct types of reciprocity that occur in human societies around the world. Which of the following statements is a description of what he described as generalized reciprocity?
gift giving without the expectation of an immediate return
According to this tutorial, the crucial difference between gifts and sales is that _________________________________________________________ .
gifts create and strengthen social relationships while sales usually do not
With which of the following subsistence patterns are people most likely to intentionally produce a surplus of food to sell or exchange for things that they cannot produce themselves?
horticulture
Horticulture is most well suited to what kind of environment?
humid, tropical forests
What is the name of the theory of state formation developed during the 1950's by Karl Wittfogel and Julian Steward? This was an ecological explanation that proposed that states arose out of the need to construct and manage large-scale irrigation systems necessary for intensive agriculture within arid river valleys.
hydraulic theory
Large-scale societies with cities obtain most of their food with which of the following subsistence patterns?
intensive agriculture
What happened to the political and economic power of most farmers in the ancient civilizations?
it decreased
What is the primary binding mechanism of a band level society? In other words, what usually is most effective in keeping these societies from disintegrating?
kinship
The subsistence pattern of pastoralists all around the world is based on maintaining herds of ______________________ .
large herbivores
What is the subsistence base that is almost always found among societies with a state level of political integration?
large-scale intensive agriculture
Modern nation states differ from the states of the ancient civilizations in that modern states commonly have _______________________ .
larger cities
The population density and community size of horticultural societies is usually _______________ pedestrian foragers.
larger than
This tutorial concluded that the theory of early state formation that is mostly likely the best one is the _________________ .
multi-cause theory
The Mongol pastoralists were _______________________ during the 13th and 14th centuries A.D .
none of the above
Which of the following statements is true of the San speakers of the Kalahari Desert in Namibia and Botswana when they were still living as foragers?
none of the above
Which of the following things characterize horticulturalists?
none of the above
Tribes are different from bands in that they have a new kind of integrative mechanism consisting of organizations that cross-cut society by bringing together a limited number of people, typically at least one from each family. Anthropologists refer to these kinds of groups as _____________ .
pantribal associations
In New Guinea, tribal leaders often worked for years to accumulate things of high value in order to give them away in large, very public formal ceremonies. What traditionally was the most important kind of thing that they gave away?
pigs
Men in indigenous societies of New Guinea wanting to increase their personal status and influence over others organized large ceremonies similar to the Kwakiutl potlatch. The most important things that were given away during these ceremonies in New Guinea were ____________ .
pigs
Which of the following kinds of agriculture is most likely to be found in the poor developing nations in tropical regions of the world?
plantation agriculture
Which of the following things are horticulturalists most likely to use in farming?
pointed sticks, hoes, or other hand tools
Some economic exchanges are intended to distribute a society's wealth in a different way than exists at present. These are called _________________ .
redistributive exchanges
Which of the following would fit the definition of negative reciprocity in North America today?
selling flashlight batteries at triple the normal price during a prolonged blackout caused by a widespread electrical power failure
Pastoralism is usually an adaptation to __________________________ .
semi-arid open country
For anthropologists, the word "horticulture" refers to:
small scale, low intensity farming
What normally functions as rudimentary credit institutions in non-market economies?
social ties including kinship
In his field studies of the ju/'hoansi, Richard Lee noted that as the number of people in a band level society increases, the potential for disruptive interpersonal conflicts inevitably rises. What did he call this phenomenon?
social velocity
Which of the following would be expected to have the most centralization of power?
state
Which of the following would be most likely to have a well equipped professional army?
state
Which of the following is likely to have pyramid shaped power relationships with a small hereditary elite class at the top headed by a king and royal family?
states
Most historically known pedestrian foraging societies ____________________________ .
subsisted mainly on vegetable foods rather than meat.
Proprietary deed has been strongly supported by _____________________ .
the U.S. and Canadian national cultures, which are European in origin
What commonly functions as a rudimentary beginning of a taxation system in chiefdoms?
the redistribution of surplus goods by the chief
Which of the following were intended functions of the Kwakiutl potlatch ceremonies in the 19th century?
to celebrate major life events in a family
Which of the following kinds of pastoralists would be most likely to have stable, permanent villages that they return to every year?
transhumance pastoralists
What kind of political system is most likely to be found among horticultural and pastoralist societies that consist of a few hundred people with multiple communities and other kinds of social sub-divisions?
tribes
The concept of ownership in which land and other property rights are restricted by the overriding rights vested in the community as a whole is called _________________ .
usufruct
What is the name of the theory of state formation that the British archaeologist V. Gordon Childe developed in 1936? This theory assumed that people made rational economic decisions that led them inevitably to develop the first states.
voluntaristic theory
The transition to intensive agriculture was originally made possible by:
water management systems and the domestication of large animals for pulling plows
