Cultural Anthropology exam questions

Which of the following people was a student of Franz Boas, helping him bring the idea of cultural relativism to anthropological research?

Margaret Mead

Clifford Geertz's research in Bali showed that the Balinese describe a person as __________.

having many different roles, like an actor playing parts

Among the Efe, a crying infant gets a response from a caregiver within __________ 75 percent of the time.

10 seconds

Explain how cultural constraints regulate cultural norms by giving specific examples of both direct and indirect cultural constraints common to your own culture.

Cultural constraints regulate cultural norms by being either indirect or direct. Being direct includes being more obvious and usually are universally known within the society. Being indirect are less obvious, but usually have no less effect. A direct cultural constraint that is common to my culture would include following laws with in the society like not murdering people or wearing clothing when going out into a public place. If either one of those tasks were completed there would be a consequence and you would most likely be in trouble with the law and be going to jail. A indirect cultural constraint that is common in my culture would be cheating on your spouse and your friends and family are ashamed to be associated with you. That is not a crime that will get you in trouble with the law, but it will be more mentally affecting. Indirect constraints are usually associated with social consequences rather than legal consequences, which may be better for you, but will still affect you significantly.

Elizabeth Zechenter suggests that the concept of __________ is often used to justify traditions desired by the dominant and powerful.

Cultural relativism

Why is hair color not considered a cultural trait?

Hair color may be shared by most members of a culture, but it is not a learned trait.

One study of Guatemalan children found less anxiety and more involvement in play after the children were given __________.

Nutritional supplements

Emile Durkheim stressed that culture is something __________ us exerting a strong __________ power on us.

Outside; coervice

Participant-observation refers to the __________.

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

In his research on psychological development in the Tiv, what did Douglass Price-Williams find?

There was no difference between Tiv and European children in understanding of conservation of earth, nuts, and numbers.

In a study of the Vai of Liberia, what did Sylvia Scribner and Michael Cole conclude about literacy and performance on cognitive tests?

There were relatively minor effects of literacy on cognitive test performance.

What principle does Elizabeth Zechenter say that cultural relativists are, ironically, claiming is universal?

Tolerance

Consider these two contemporary American parenting styles. In more traditional parenting, baby is put to sleep alone in her own room, encouraged to self-soothe, and fed on a schedule. In the attachment parenting style, baby is fed on demand, sleeps in the parents' bed, and her cries are attended to quickly. Based on your understanding of the anthropology of childhood, what behaviors or values do you believe these two groups of parents wish to instill in their children? Explain your answer.

When considering the two contemporary american parenting styles, it makes me think about ethnohistory which consists of studies that are based on descriptive materials about a single society at more than one point in time. Ethnohistory helps provide the essential data for historical studies of all types, just as ethnography provides the essential data for all non historical types of research. Another thing that comes to mind is the parents' belief system. Parents have children having an idea about how to raise them to be the best that they can be, but no parent has a book about how to parent. They just parent and do the best that they can do. Parents have an idea about how they were parented and may change things or may keep things that were done. When thinking about parenting there is two contemporary parenting styles, traditional and attachment parenting. When thinking about traditional parenting, I think about focusing on the child and giving them a sense of independence as they grow up. For example, parents obviously need to fulfill the needs of their child and give them a healthy meal , clean water, good shelter, education, the ability to access medical attention if needed, and to have a sense of affection, to let the child know that they are loved by their parents. As the children gains his/her independence with guidance the traditional parent will frequently tell the child "no" so that they understand the right things to do versus the wrong things. Ultimately traditional parenting is focused on giving the child a sense of independence and self-reliance with guidance to become a successful person within our society. When thinking about the attachment parenting style, I think about security and self-assurance. Children when they are born need to feel secure, at birth most mothers breast feed, this is the first initial sense of security that a baby receives. When they are close to the mother, they feel safe and secure because of the close contact. Some parents do not like when their baby cries, so they continually are comforting them and eventually allow the child to sleep with them. When the child is growing up, the attachment style parents are self-assuring their kids and making them feel good about them selves, they are loving to them, and empathize with them to help regulate their emotions.

Consider the following subfields of anthropology: archaeology, primatology, paleoanthropology, ethnology, and linguistic anthropology. Group these subfields into either biological anthropology or cultural anthropology, and explain your answer.

When thinking about anthropology it is sometimes difficult to distinguish whether the subfield of anthropology belongs with biological anthropology or cultural anthropology. Biological anthropology is the study of humans as biological organisms, dealing with the emergence and evolution of humans with contemporary biological variation among human populations. Cultural anthropology is the study of cultural variation and universals in the past and present. When dividing the subcultures into their designated group, I would place primatology and paleoanthropology into the biological anthropology side. I would then place the remaining archeology, ethnology and linguistic anthropology with cultural anthropology. I would place primatology with biological anthropology because primatology is the study of fossilized and living primates which includes humans and our extinct relatives. When I think about primatology, I think about monkeys and apes, by studying primatology, it is helping us determine how and if we evolved from apes. When thinking about the primates that we may have evolved from, that is dealing with the biological aspect, which is why I placed primatology in the biological anthropology category. The next subfield that I placed in biological anthropology is paleoanthropology. I placed this in the biological anthropology group because it is the formation and development of the specific characteristics of humans. By being able to study paleoanthropology, we are able to try to figure out information about the emergence of humans and their later evolution. Also as we study paleoanthropology we are able to distinguish some of the human variation and answer questions about how and why we are the way we are today. I would place archaeology with cultural anthropology because archeology is the study of the ancient and recent human past through the material remains that have been found. In this subfield, it is basically the study of all human culture because as we find different archaeological remains, it has helped us determine different things about our culture. By having the ability to determine things with remains, it has helped us reconstruct the daily life and customs of people who have lived in the past by being able to trace their cultural changes. Archaeologists have the ability to go back in the past and see if things back then were the same as they are today. The next subfield that I placed in cultural anthropology is ethnology, I placed this in cultural anthropology because ethnology is now commonly called cultural anthropology. Besides that, ethnology seeks to understand how and why people today and in the recent past differ or are similar in their customary ways of thinking and acting. Ethnology helps people answer the questions about why cultures develop and change and how one aspect of culture affects the other. The last subfield that I placed in cultural anthropology is linguistic anthropology. I placed this in cultural anthropology because it is the anthropological study of language. Linguistics is important because it is the study of language, and in order to study language we have to dig deep into the remains that we have to interpret what people in the past were trying to say. People in the past did not have dictionaries, so anthropologists had to take a significant amount of time and study their language to determine what they were trying to say.