Deck 13: Economics: Working, Sharing, and Buying

Question 1

According to anthropologists, economies are shaped by which factors?

A) the decisions people make
B) social relationships
C) culture and morality
D) all of the above

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Economic anthropologists study

A) the decisions people make about earning a living
B) what types of work people choose to do
C) the creation of value
D) all of the above

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Which of the following is a theoretical approach to how economies create value used in society?

A) neoclassical economics
B) substantivism
C) Marxism
D) all of the above

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Which economic theory studies how people make decisions to allocate resources like time, labor, and money to maximize their personal satisfaction?

A) neoclassical economics
B) Marxism
C) substantivism
D) cultural economics

Question 5

The collection of goods in a community and the subsequent re-division of those goods among members of a society is called

A) exchange
B) production
C) redistribution
D) capitalism

Question 6

According to Marshall Sahlins, when production is organized by families it is

A) the domestic mode of production
B) capitalism
C) neoclassical economics
D) less valued

Question 7

Which perspective incorporates symbolic associations and morals into the understanding of a society's economy?

A) neoclassical economics
B) substantivism
C) Marxism
D) cultural economics

Question 8

Economies in which people seek high social rank, prestige, and power instead of money and material wealth are known as

A) capitalist
B) surplus value
C) market exchange
D) prestige economies

Question 9

The exchange of brass rods for the purchase of cattle or the payment of bride price is an example of the use of

A) surplus value
B) general purpose money
C) limited purpose money
D) exchange value

Question 10

Gift exchange for Marcel Mauss is based primarily on

A) prestige
B) status
C) obligation
D) identity

Question 11

In Malaysia, capitalist entrepreneurship is

A) about economic action
B) about profit accumulation
C) retaining all personal wealth
D) respectful of Islamic and Malay obligations and values

Question 12

When you are consuming an object, the process of taking possession of it is called

A) gift exchange
B) surplus value
C) appropriation
D) exchange value

Question 13

The relative worth of an object or service is its __________.

Question 14

The cooperative organization of work into specialized tasks and roles is the __________.

Question 15

The __________ is a social institution in which people come together to buy and sell goods.

Question 16

__________ is the economic system based on private ownership of the means of production, in which prices are set and goods distributed through a market.

Question 17

__________ criticized substantivists for lack of attention to individual action and behavior and focused on scientific investigation into individual economic behavior and rationality.

Question 18

People who live through objects and images not of their own making are __________.

Question 19

Anthropological fieldwork involves long term immersion in a community.

Question 20

Economists and economic anthropologists are not that different in the way they study how people get the things they need to survive.

Question 21

The use of money is a human universal.

Question 22

Exchange is a human universal.

Question 23

In the Kula and Sagali exchanges the prestige lies in receiving items such as armbands and skirts, not in giving them.

Question 24

The main difference between economists and economic anthropologists is that economists

A) try to understand and predict economic patterns
B) do not assume economic transactions are the same everywhere
C) tend to look at the day-to-day economic decisions of people
D) all of the above

Question 25

Which word is most closely linked to the Marxist perspective?

A) inequality
B) equality
C) rationality
D) relativism

Question 26

Why is Karl Polanyi's distinction between formal and substantive economics important?

A) it explains why states control economies in Europe
B) it distinguishes between primitive and capitalist economic systems
C) it recognizes that economies involve both how people think and the actual transactions they engage in
D) it laid the groundwork for the rise of Marxist theory in anthropology

Question 27

The themes of reciprocity and gift exchange are critical to anthropologists because

A) they are economically significant in market-based economies
B) the exchange of gifts is the economy in many societies
C) reciprocity is deeply embedded in social relations
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 28

A good illustration of the Marxist concept of surplus value is

A) a worker who gets their pay reduced and generates more profit for the owner
B) a worker makes one $30 sweater every hour in a factory but gets paid only $15
C) a worker improves her or his efficiency by not taking bathroom breaks
D) a factory owner prevents labor unions from forming in the factory

Question 29

From an anthropological point of view, people take the price tag off of gifts and wrap birthday presents because

A) people like surprises
B) people are anxious about being seen as spending too much on gifts
C) people are anxious about being seen as spending too little on gifts
D) people are ambivalent about expressing their connections with others using impersonal goods

Question 30

One of the key findings of Annette Weiner's work in the Trobriand Islands contradicted Malinowski's earlier idea that

A) women, not men, were the force behind the success of the Kula ring
B) men received moral and economic support for their participation in the Kula ring exchange system
C) men also conducted the sagali mortuary exchange
D) women did not participate in the exchange systems in the islands

Question 31

When a parent pays for a child's piano lessons, he or she is engaged in

A) delayed reciprocity
B) generalized reciprocity
C) balanced reciprocity
D) negative reciprocity

Question 32

A key reason anthropologists study people's pursuit of cool things is because

A) it's an important avenue through which people express and change their social relationships
B) it clarifies the underlying nature of class and social distance that exist between different groups in a society
C) it helps us understand the innate superiority of some people in society
D) it helps shed light on distinct cultures of capitalism

Question 33

From an anthropological perspective, the main reason Wall Street banks are not the bastions of individualism and cold rationalism many think they are is that

A) bankers can be quite compassionate and donate money to many worthy causes
B) personal relationships and local knowledge are critical to successful transactions
C) the government heavily regulates the decisions bankers make
D) certain bankers think more like Marxists than neoclassical economists

Question 34

Anthropologists create intersubjectivity with the people with whom they interact by

A) multiple rounds of observations
B) buying informants gifts
C) avoiding attending every day activities with informants
D) making the focus of their interactions very narrow

Question 35

Which of the following is not true of economic anthropology?

A) it is skeptical of the idea that there is a universal value for anything
B) it challenges the notion that economic transactions are the same everywhere
C) it assumes that free market capitalism will take over the world
D) it encompasses multiple theoretical approaches to explain how economies work

Question 36

A mafia gangster passing money to his wife to spend on household expenses is a good illustration of the concept of __________.

Question 37

An example of participant observation was Malinowski's long residence in the __________.

Question 38

A key feature of any economy is that it organizes people into social roles. In the case of __________, these roles include the state, consumer, laborers, and entrepreneurs.

Question 39

__________, or the direct swapping of goods, is different from __________ in that a giver has no expectation of return.

Question 40

Gift exchanges are important because people everywhere invest symbolic meaning in the things they give, receive, and consume.

Question 41

Malinowski's analysis of the Kula cycle is important because it helps explain how Trobriand men get social status.

Question 42

Anthropologists are concerned about protecting their informants identity so that other scholars don't try to take over their work.

Question 43

The central point of the concept of spheres of exchange is to make a distinction between general- and limited-purpose money.

Question 44

A formalist anthropologist doing fieldwork in a supermarket would be most interested in

A) the geographic location and formal spatial layout of the supermarket
B) how shoppers decide which cat food to buy when they have fifteen varieties to choose from
C) the ways managers appropriate the labor of checkout clerks, butchers, and other workers
D) the diverse ways general-purpose money circulates in the store

Question 45

If you applied the notion of transactional orders to understand a scandal in which a college professor accepts payment for a grade, you would most likely focus on

A) the poor morality of the professor
B) the symbolic meanings Americans hold about the morality of education and student-teacher relations
C) the fact that American higher education pays its professors very little
D) the widespread corruption that runs throughout universities

Question 46

A substantivist perspective on the economic life of a college fraternity would likely focus on

A) the spending the fraternity does on parties
B) the informal exchange of favors and goods among members
C) the exploitation of pledges' labor by full-fledged members
D) the prestige that accrues to members who give a lot of goods and services to other members

Question 47

Which of the following analyses of Christmas shopping would least likely come from a follower of cultural economics?

A) people buy gifts to reaffirm and strengthen social relations
B) people buy certain gifts to build their stature among friends and family
C) people might buy some gifts in a store and trade and barter for other gifts
D) people always make decisions about what to buy on the basis of getting the lowest price

Question 48

A Marxist approach to the cultural processes Karen Ho studied on Wall Street would be most focused on

A) the tendency to lay off employees on a regular basis as the bank suffers through financial crises caused by its own activitie
B) the rational decision-making logic of bankers
C) the value placed on individual wealth and conspicuous consumption among bankers
D) the way government regulations moderate the worst effects of financial crises caused by the banks

Question 49

A substantivist would be most likely to explain the Kula cycle as

A) an elaborate exercise with little useful benefits to the society
B) closely tied to important social institutions, such as kin networks, trading ties, and political structure
C) an opportunity for individuals with keen negotiating skills to get a lot of goods
D) a way of gaining personal prestige

Question 50

If you wanted to study Christmas shopping by students from your campus, what anthropological methods would you use?

Question 51

Is cultural economics applicable to a study of an industrial factory? Explain and illustrate your answer.

Question 52

How might the approach of Jim Yong Kim, M.D, Ph.D in medical anthropology and recent president of the World Bank, change the World Bank's typical approach to dealing with the economic crises of Haiti

Question 53

If you had a goal of understanding the economic life of a typical American suburban family, which theoretical approach(es) from economic anthropology would you find most valuable? Explain your answer.

Question 54

Compare and contrast how two theories-formalism and substantivism-would explain how and why people consume prestige goods, like Ferrari automobiles and Gucci bags.

Question 55

What role do you think cultural economics can play in understanding the behavior of China's new entrepreneurial class?

Question 56

How do culture and social relations shape the meaning of money?

Question 57

Are there distinct cultures of capitalism? Explain why or why not.

Question 58

How are reciprocity and gift-giving related to the economy?

Question 59

How are economic transactions, consumption, and exchanges related to social and individual identities?