Deck 14: Sustainability: Environment and Foodways

Question 1

What do environmental anthropologists study?

A) the impact of pollution on certain groups
B) the effects of global economic changes on human-nature relationships
C) the impact of sustainable development initiatives on certain groups
D) all of the above

Answer 1

D

Question 2

The concept that people have images, knowledge, and concepts of the physical landscape that affect how they will actually interact with it is called

A) a cultural landscape
B) an ecosystem
C) a subsistence strategy
D) a metaphor

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Foodways are dynamic because

A) some foods become trendy
B) they are subject to large-scale industrial processes
C) trade relationships change
D) all of the above

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Which mode of subsistence includes the search for edible things?

A) foraging
B) horticulture
C) pastoralism
D) intensive agriculture

Question 5

Intensification, a process that increases yields, can include

A) prepping soil
B) plant modification
C) large labor force
D) all of the above

Question 6

According to Itzaj beliefs

A) humans and nature exist in the same realm
B) humans and nature exist in separate realms
C) water is the elixir of life
D) cutting down trees brings good luck

Question 7

Analyses that focus on the linkages between political-economic power, social inequality, and ecological destruction are typical of which approach?

A) demography
B) environmental anthropology
C) political economy
D) political ecology

Question 8

A social movement that addresses the linkages between racial discrimination and injustice, social equity, and environmental quality is

A) political ecology
B) demography
C) political economy
D) environmental justice

Question 9

Eating practices mark

A) gender
B) age
C) ethnic group
D) all of the above

Question 10

Traditional ecological knowledge is not well-known in the West because

A) it is often shared in local languages
B) some species and ecological interactions exist in only one place
C) Westerners don't value this type of knowledge
D) all of the above

Question 11

The Green Revolution has initiated a worldwide change in

A) preventing destruction of the world's rain forests
B) the methods that allow intensive agriculture to plant crops
C) how governments permit corporations to conduct forestry practices
D) agriculture in the developing world

Question 12

The concept of animal husbandry refers to the practice of

A) breeding, care, and use of domestic animals by humans
B) breeding and intermarriage between humans and domestic animals
C) breeding and intermarriage between humans and domestic animals
D) care and feeding of domestic animals as pets

Question 13

__________ development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Question 14

The most effective farming technique in tropical areas when population densities are low is called __________ agriculture.

Question 15

Taste refers to a __________ as well as __________.

Question 16

There are four major __________ that anthropologists understand as the social relationships and practices necessary for procuring, producing, and distributing food.

Question 17

An approach to conservation that begins with the assumption that local people threaten nature is referred to as __________.

Question 18

One early interest within environmental anthropology concerned with how non-Western societies classify natural phenomena was called __________.

Question 19

One of the biggest problems found in industrial agriculture is overproduction.

Question 20

An ecological footprint is a measurement of the population an area can support.

Question 21

It has been proven that overpopulation will inevitably lead to global famine.

Question 22

In many parts of the world food is a very important way of communicating social identity.

Question 23

Famines are often caused not by environmental factors but social factors like inequality.

Question 24

The key differences between the two types of subsistence that are based on agricultural methods include

A) population density and size
B) animal husbandry and complexity
C) size and simplicity
D) movement and size

Question 25

The term foodways describes a perspective that approaches food as

A) a tangible object that provides nutrition
B) a conduit for social relationships
C) symbolic
D) all of the above

Question 26

One of the primary reasons indigenous leaders criticize the dominant model for administering protected environmental areas is

A) they don't allow big-game hunting
B) they assume nature must be uninhabited by people
C) they don't charge visitors enough to enter the area
D) they don't practice sustainable development

Question 27

Consumer capitalism contributes to increasing ecological footprints in industrialized nations because

A) the production of goods is not sustainable and uses too many raw materials
B) it promotes the idea that people need more things to be happy
C) goods are shipped using fossil fuels
D) all of the above

Question 28

Sustainable development for indigenous people involves which of the following elements?

A) it must address local people's ability to make a living
B) it must involve them in natural resource management
C) it must create sustainable alternatives to economic activities that deplete natural resources
D) all of the above

Question 29

Which of the following is a key argument of ethnobiologist Brent Berlin, who compared human classification systems?

A) humans have a wide range of variation when it comes to classifying
B) all human classification systems are reflective of an underlying cognitive structure of the human brain that organizes information in systematic ways
C) humans organize information very differently depending on their environment
D) non-Western people do not organize scientific knowledge like Westerners do

Question 30

European colonial regimes commonly instituted controls on native people's use of natural resources

A) to eliminate native competition against the European businesses exploiting raw materials in the colonie
B) because they thought the native people were too good at using resources
C) because the colonial administrations purchased the lands where the resources were located
D) to demonstrate their ability to exert political will whenever it was deemed necessary

Question 31

One of anthropology's insights about the foraging mode of subsistence is that

A) foraging people struggle to survive in harsh environments
B) foraging people have a cultural view of their environments as giving
C) foraging people settle into agriculture the first chance they get
D) foraging people today are the last way to study the paleolithic

Question 32

Combating the world wide rise in obesity would require dealing with

A) the increasing availability of energy dense foods
B) the decrease in physical activity
C) the population shift from rural to urban areas
D) all of the above

Question 33

The point of Mary Douglas' comparison of the proper sequence of an English meal (with dessert at the end), to the structure of a sentence, was to

A) demonstrate that language and food had strong similarities
B) show how demanding proper English cuisine could be
C) demonstrate how food was a form of symbolic communication
D) illustrate the inequality gap in the consumption of food

Question 34

Industrial agriculture leads to the problem of over production-too much food being produced-even while there is a corresponding

A) increase in famine in other parts of the world
B) decline in overall quality of farm products
C) decrease in the use of water and fertilizer
D) reduction in the percentage of people engaged in the process

Question 35

The biocultural logic of local foodways is related to each of the following observations except

A) people typically have a stable understanding of good taste
B) most local foodways have developed to provide nutritious energy to people
C) many groups of people willingly change their foodways when something better, such as industrial agriculture, comes along
D) all of the above

Question 36

Although the image of burning tropical forests can be unsettling, can be a sustainable form of horticulture.

Question 37

are important because they demonstrate that many landscapes that seem wild are actually the product of human shaping.

Question 38

Anthropologist Roy Rappaport's distinction between __________ models of ecology is important because it distinguishes between outsider and insider views of nature.

Question 39

In the face of disparities in access to food, anthropologists are increasingly studying the issue of __________.

Question 40

In hunter-gatherer societies, marriage is often used to describe their relationship with nature.

Question 41

Ethnobiologists are primarily interested in the conservation traditions of non-Western peoples.

Question 42

Environmental anthropologists promote the idea that all indigenous people are environmentalists.

Question 43

Globally, more people now suffer from the effects of overnutrition than of undernutrition.

Question 44

If anthropologist Roy Rappaport were studying organic farming practices in the rural United States, he would likely want to understand

A) the environmental justice angle of the organic movement
B) the policies that support organic production and wise land stewardship
C) the understandings farmers themselves have of the landscape, as well as the understandings scientists and other outsiders have of the same landscape
D) all of the above

Question 45

Political ecological perspectives would be useful to all of the following except

A) the effects of traffic corridors on the air quality of an urban neighborhood
B) the role of peasant farmers in tropical deforestation
C) the relationship between high birth rates and the hidden cost of hamburgers
D) the migration of rural people to cities because of ecological crisis in the countryside

Question 46

An anthropologist who studies the cultural landscape of Zapotec farmers of southern Mexico would be primarily interested in

A) their interactions with the local ecosystem
B) the meanings and images they have of nature that shape their farming practices
C) the ways environmental conditions shape their actions and beliefs
D) the ethnobiological classifications they have of their environment

Question 47

The concept of "fortress conservation" would be applicable to all of the following situations except

A) the eviction of a local community from a national park to keep it pristine in the Brazilian Amazon
B) the criminalization of local people who practice traditional hunting in formally protected Costa Rican rain forests
C) the construction of ecotourist facilities to protect visitors from wandering lions in the Tanzanian savannas
D) the prevention of pastoralists from moving through a game reserve to gain access to a waterhole during the dry season in Morocco

Question 48

A foodways perspective on human evolution would emphasize

A) that people prefer the same kinds of fruit-based diet as primates, with periodic eating of meat
B) that changes in human dietary physiology are intertwined with how people grow, share, and eat food
C) that modes of subsistence evolve from the most simple, foraging, to the most complex, industrial agriculture
D) that how people think about and interact with the landscape has evolved over time

Question 49

Which of the following would be least likely given as an explanation by a cultural anthropologist for the absence of food security among the poor?

A) it's related to the ignorance of the poor to effectively feed themselves
B) it's related to the globalization of foodways
C) it's related to government policies and priorities
D) it's related to dynamics involved in the industrialization of foodways

Question 50

Do you think an anthropologist studying pastoralism in a non-Western setting, such as Ethiopia or Sudan, could offer useful insights about rangeland management to ranchers in a U.S. state like Wyoming or Texas? Explain your answer.

Question 51

Could you apply the concept of cultural landscape to a North American suburban community? Explain your answer.

Question 52

Have you ever encountered an anthropogenic landscape? Describe it. How do you know it was an artifactual landscape?

Question 53

Do Americans have traditional ecological knowledge? Explain your answer, and use examples.

Question 54

What role do you think perspectives drawn from environmental anthropology can play in the study of climate change?

Question 55

What kinds of behaviors and actions might you look for as an anthropologist if you were to study the concept of "taste" at a fancy social function such as a special honors graduation meal? Keep in mind the question is not about how the food "tastes" (as a physical sensation) but about the event and the people in attendance.

Question 56

What does it mean that all knowledge systems about the environment are culturally based?

Question 57

Bill McKibben, a prominent American environmentalist, has argued that human beings will witness "the end of nature." What do you think he means by this? How do anthropological perspectives on nature, culture, and sustainability fit, if they do at all, into this argument?

Question 58

The recent appearance of the local food movement is changing the foodways of many consumers. How does the consumption of locally produced food affect our foodways? To what extent is the act of "buying local" a political statement as well as an intentional shift to changes in one's own health and well-being?

Question 59

How and why do social relationships differ in distinct modes of subsistence such as foraging, horticulture, and pastoralism?