Deck 17: Economic Systems

Question 1

In general, which type of economic activity provides the most leisure time?

A) food-collecting
B) pastoralism
C) intensive agriculture
D) industrial agriculture

Answer 1

food-collecting

Question 2

Private ownership of land would most likely be found where people make their living through

A) horticulture.
B) specialized pastoralism.
C) shifting agriculture.
D) intensive agriculture.

Answer 2

intensive agriculture.

Question 3

Of the following economic activities, which has the need for the higher level of technology?

A) food-collecting
B) horticulture
C) pastoralism
D) intensive agriculture

Answer 3

intensive agriculture

Question 4

__________ assumes that individuals seek to maximize the return (in calories and nutrients) on their labor in deciding which animals and plants to hunt or collect.

A) Food-collection theory
B) Optimal foraging theory
C) Generalized reciprocity
D) Optimal hunting strategy

Question 5

Among pastoral nomads, wealth is usually measured in

A) animals.
B) the amount of land people own.
C) the number of children people have.
D) the number of wives a man has.

Question 6

The concept of private ownership of land is least likely among

A) intensive agriculturalists.
B) food collectors.
C) horticulturalists.
D) pastoralists.

Question 7

Why do members of food-collecting societies not own land individually?

A) Land has no intrinsic value to collectors.
B) No system of surveying existed in these types of societies.
C) Food-collectors were not interested in land because they needed family more.
D) Land was an unknown commodity.

Question 8

__________ occurs when prices are subject to supply and demand and do not necessarily involve money.

A) Redistribution
B) Reciprocity
C) Commercial exchange
D) Balanced reciprocity

Question 9

Which of the following statements best describes the land ownership situation among the Hadza of Tanzania?

A) Individuals may only use the land that they have purchased.
B) The political leaders decide who owns specific parcels of land.
C) The Hadza do not believe that they have exclusive rights over the land they use.
D) The government owns all the land, and hunting time on it is "rented" by the individual.

Question 10

An indirect form of __________ is taxation.

A) redistribution
B) reciprocity
C) forced labor
D) voluntary labor

Question 11

In contrast to food collectors, horticulturalists

A) usually grant permanent ownership of land to individual families.
B) generally grant individual families the exclusive right to land while in use.
C) rarely defend group territories.
D) usually grant individuals fewer claims to the land.

Question 12

__________ is the accumulation of goods by a particular person, or in a particular place, for the purpose of subsequent distribution.

A) Reciprocity
B) Redistribution
C) Commercial exchange
D) Balanced reciprocity

Question 13

When goods or services are given to another without any apparent expectation of a returned gift, we call it

A) negative reciprocity.
B) redistribution.
C) generalized reciprocity.
D) balanced reciprocity.

Question 14

Under the Homestead Act of 1862, how long did a person need to farm a 160-acre piece of land before the federal government would consider that person the owner of that land?

A) 5 months
B) 5 years
C) 10 months
D) 10 years

Question 15

Among horticulturalists

A) a tool usually requires years to make.
B) tools are almost always made by specialists.
C) individuals almost always make all their own tools.
D) people generally use fewer tools than do food collectors.

Question 16

All societies divide labor by __________ and __________.

A) value / service
B) service / custom
C) value / productivity
D) gender / age

Question 17

Of the following economic activities, which finds the individual ownership of land most important?

A) food-collecting
B) horticulture
C) pastoralism
D) intensive agriculture

Question 18

Of all food collectors, who probably had the most sophisticated weapons?

A) the Inuit
B) the Mbuti Pygmies
C) Australian Aborigines
D) Andaman Islanders

Question 19

Compared to horticulturalists, nomadic pastoralists

A) produce more surplus agricultural crops.
B) generally produce more of their own food.
C) are more sedentary.
D) own relatively few personal goods.

Question 20

Among food collectors, tools generally belong to

A) the tribal custodian.
B) the wealthiest tribe member.
C) the elders.
D) the person who made them.

Question 21

Every society has access to natural resources and cultural rules for determining who has access to particular resources and what can be done with them. These include

A) land division into measurable units.
B) only verbal rules.
C) no private ownership of resources anywhere is the world.
D) guarantees that resources will be kept pure and clean.

Question 22

Once taxes are taken into consideration, how many months out of the year does the average person in the United States work for the various levels of government?

A) 1 month
B) 2 months
C) 3 months
D) 4 months

Question 23

Anthropologists note that the division of labor is universal. It is divided by

A) gender.
B) age.
C) specialties.
D) all of the above.

Question 24

We see a peak in the organization of labor in industrial societies because of

A) a lack of complex political organization.
B) great occupational specialization.
C) a lack of a centralized economy.
D) tasks becoming more simplified in almost all occupations.

Question 25

Reciprocity is practiced widely in the world and it's central characteristic is that

A) those who practice it don't like it much.
B) it doesn't rely on the use of money.
C) it is not as effective as market exchange.
D) it hasn't been studied much.

Question 26

Define market exchange. What are the factors that lead to it?

Question 27

Describe the three forms of reciprocity. Which one would most likely be used by a used car salesperson? Why?

Question 28

Among the ¡Kung, children living in nomadic camps

A) were required to go to school all day.
B) lived with their mother's family until puberty.
C) were impressed into helping their parents with subsistence activities.
D) had virtually no work.

Question 29

When first described, anthropologists recognized that most societies had a domestic mode of production. In recent times, some societies have become

A) industrial or mechanical based.
B) reliant on corporations or governments to foot the bill.
C) reliant on wage-earners to sell their labor.
D) all of the above.

Question 30

People are most likely to be forced to work in

A) societies dependent on tree crops.
B) food collectors.
C) complex societies.
D) societies dependent on shifting agriculture.

Question 31

Technology becomes very important to converting resources to food because

A) it's a new innovation which is helpful.
B) it improves the chances of getting food.
C) ancient cultures never had technology available.
D) it doesn't include tools, which make it harder.

Question 32

Generalized reciprocity is most likely between

A) friendly neighboring groups.
B) close kin.
C) strangers and enemies.
D) friends in modern societies.

Question 33

In all of the societies studied by anthropologists, people are assigned different tasks based on their

A) kinship affiliation.
B) social status.
C) age/gender.
D) capabilities.

Question 34

The giving of gifts without any immediate return or conscious thought of return is most common in

A) wealthier societies.
B) industrialized societies.
C) societies with intensive agriculture.
D) societies of food collectors and horticulturalists.

Question 35

When we shop at malls, anthropologists say we are engaging in

A) market or commercial exchange.
B) bartering, where goods are traded.
C) a non-monetary form of economic exchange.
D) a social contract which requires us to buy something.

Question 36

In intensive agriculture, individual ownership of land resources exists because

A) they couldn't develop laws to protect the land use for everyone.
B) it's hard to know as it goes against the social consensus.
C) of using the land season after season.
D) legal issues didn't become important.

Question 37

When do people have to work?

A) when it is necessary for survival.
B) when they move from one location to another.
C) actually, it is not necessary to work as the government will take care of all needs.
D) none of the above.

Question 38

Why don't foragers have private ownership of land?

A) the land has great value for foragers.
B) when food sources fluctuate it makes sense to change to private ownership.
C) it's a collective ownership and allows all people access to the resources.
D) none of the above.

Question 39

The kula ring is an example of

A) redistribution.
B) a prized jewel valued for its magical properties.
C) balanced reciprocity.
D) a dance step used during ceremonial exchanges.

Question 40

By "market exchange," anthropologists mean

A) money has been set aside for "a rainy day."
B) transactions in which prices are subject to supply and demand, whether or not the transaction takes place in the marketplace.
C) money is always used in economic transactions.
D) food items are being exchanged.

Question 41

What is commercialization? Why do you think most, if not all, large societies are commercialized now?
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Question 42

What defines the value of general-purpose money (such as the dollar)?

Question 43

Why do children in horticultural and agricultural societies work? Why do you think that children of foragers apparently do not work as much?

Question 44

What is a leveling device? How is it practiced in commercial economies? How can
reciprocity be used as a leveling device?

Question 45

How is taxation a form of forced labor?

Question 46

How is special-purpose money utilized?