Deck 1: Anthropology: Asking Questions About Humanity

Question 1

The subfield of anthropology that studies human evolution, including human genetics and human nutrition, is called

A) biological anthropology
B) linguistic anthropology
C) cultural anthropology
D) archaeology

Answer 1

A

Question 2

The subfield of anthropology that studies language use is called

A) biological anthropology
B) linguistic anthropology
C) cultural anthropology
D) archaeology

Answer 2

B

Question 3

The subfield of anthropology that studies the material remains of past cultures, often focusing on the rise of cities, is called

A) biological anthropology
B) linguistic anthropology
C) cultural anthropology
D) archaeology

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The subfield of anthropology that studies human diversity, beliefs, and practice is called

A) biological anthropology
B) linguistic anthropology
C) cultural anthropology
D) archaeology

Question 5

When did anthropology emerge as an academic discipline?

A) 1700s
B) 1800s
C) 1900s
D) 1500s

Question 6

The moral and intellectual principle that one should withhold judgment about seemingly strange or exotic beliefs and practices is known as

A) diversity
B) cultural relativism
C) ethnocentrism
D) multiplicity

Question 7

The thinker who developed evolutionary theory in the nineteenth century was

A) Karl Marx
B) Max Weber
C) Emile Durkheim
D) Charles Darwin

Question 8

Increasingly, professional anthropologists are

A) women
B) members of ethnic and racial minorities
C) indigenous peoples
D) all of the above

Question 9

The nineteenth-century British anthropologist credited with the development of the concept of culture through an evolutionary perspective was

A) Emile Durkheim
B) Edward Burnett Tylor
C) Max Weber
D) Charles Darwin

Question 10

The primary ethical responsibility of anthropologists is to

A) the public
B) the people or species they study
C) the agency that funds the research
D) the institution in which they work

Question 11

Assuming your culture's way of doing things is the best is called

A) cultural relativism
B) ethical responsibility
C) natural selection
D) ethnocentrism

Question 12

The term diversity, when defined anthropologically,

A) is the same as difference
B) does not include how people are similar
C) focuses on multiplicity and variety
D) a term that is no longer used

Question 13

The broadest category of anthropological work is known as __________ in which the anthropologist not only performs research but is involved in the design, implementation, and management of the some organization, process, or product.

Question 14

The practice of anthropologists explaining their research to participants and being clear about the risks involved is called __________.

Question 15

The method of data collection that involves prolonged and intensive observation of everyday life and is a hallmark of cultural anthropology is the ____________.

Question 16

__________ refers to the adaptive changes that organisms make across generations.

Question 17

When cultural anthropologists live in societies for one or more years observing social life, they are doing __________.

Question 18

The historical practice of more powerful countries claiming possession of less powerful ones is called __________ and was a driving force in anthropology.

Question 19

A key concern in the 1850s that shaped the discipline of anthropology was the emergence of a new scientific theory called "evolution."

Question 20

Historical archaeologists excavate sites where there are no written or oral histories.

Question 21

Diversity, defined anthropologically, refers to both multiplicity and variety, which is not the same thing as "difference."

Question 22

Anthropologists have always approached a problem by specializing in one of the four subfields.

Question 23

Contemporary cultural anthropologists often rank societies along an evolutionary scale from "primitive" to "advanced."

Question 24

What prompted intellectuals to start systematically explaining the differences among people?

A) the writings of early explorers
B) the Enlightenment
C) the Industrial Revolution
D) World War II

Question 25

What process involves shifting from an agricultural economy to a factory-based one?

A) modernization
B) industrialization
C) neoliberalization
D) globalization

Question 26

The process by which inheritable traits are passed along to offspring because they are better suited to the environment is

A) evolution
B) natural selection
C) degeneration
D) genetic mutation

Question 27

Western colonial powers understood the different customs and cultures of the people they colonized as

A) proof of their primitive nature
B) basic human diversity
C) a positive characteristic
D) something to be celebrated and reproduced

Question 28

Which of the following is the most significant aspect of the salvage paradigm?

A) archaeologists study other people's trash by salvaging it
B) anthropologists study the natural destruction of societies
C) anthropologists need to collect information from societies before they die out
D) anthropologists produce paradigms to salvage the dignity of oppressed people

Question 29

During fieldwork, cultural anthropologists

A) learn the local language
B) record people's economic transactions
C) study how environmental changes affect agriculture
D) all of the above

Question 30

Linguistic anthropologists traditionally study

A) how new languages are formed
B) how social changes are reflected in how people communicate with one another
C) how indigenous people classify their social worlds
D) all of the above

Question 31

A key principle of the holistic perspective developed by Franz Boas is

A) understanding the racial diversity of the human species
B) deconstructing cultures into the four subfields of anthropology
C) a goal of synthesizing the entire context of human experience
D) that people are fundamentally ethnocentric

Question 32

A key element of the scientific method, which both explains things and guides research, is

A) participant observation
B) theories
C) observation of facts
D) hypothesis

Question 33

Techniques that classify features of a phenomenon and count, measure, and construct statistical models are collecting and analyzing

A) qualitative data
B) historical data
C) ethnographic data
D) quantitative data

Question 34

The comparative method

A) is a general approach
B) holds that no society or behavior should be seen in isolation
C) refers to the practice of comparing two or more cultures
D) all of the above

Question 35

Even though anthropologists use parts of the scientific method, some don't see what they do as science because

A) the complexity of social behavior prevents any completely objective analysis of human culture
B) they do not do research in a laboratory
C) they use only qualitative methods
D) ethnography is part fiction

Question 36

Research that involves interviews, observations, images, objects, and words is a __________ study.

Question 37

Research institutes and universities where research is conducted are required by law to have __________, which monitor all human subjects-based research.

Question 38

Ethics, which are __________, are important to anthropologists.

Question 39

A key feature of the __________ concept is that it refers to the taken-for-granted notions, rules, moralities, and behaviors within a social group that feel natural.

Question 40

The scientific method is a research method in pursuit of ultimate truths.

Question 41

There is rarely any guessing involved in the development of theories because they are tested repeatedly.

Question 42

Qualitative methods often use the researchers themselves as the research instrument.

Question 43

Anthropologists never disguise their informants' identities in order to preserve the transparency of their research process.

Question 44

A biological anthropologist interested in health and illness would study

A) how people learn about health and illness in school
B) how people use language to classify who is sick and who is well
C) how human genetics change in relation to diseases
D) how people in the past buried people who died from illness

Question 45

A linguistic anthropologist studying people's relationships to the natural world would be most interested in

A) what words people use to classify things in their environment
B) what plants and animals people eat most regularly
C) what environmental factors are influencing human morphology
D) what kinds of technology people could use to better control their environment

Question 46

A qualitative approach to studying social life in your university would emphasize all of the following except

A) A qualitative approach to studying social life in your university would emphasize all of the following except
B) the construction of statistical models to explain activities in the community
C) the use of field notes, recordings, images, and documents to understand life in the community
D) your own subjective impressions

Question 47

A quantitative approach to studying the archaeological past would be most interested in

A) A quantitative approach to studying the archaeological past would be most interested in
B) the personal impressions of the archaeologist him- or herself
C) the comparison of several distinct field sites
D) building and testing hypotheses by collecting, classifying, and measuring the remains of past cultures

Question 48

An ethical approach to anthropological research would emphasize

A) a commitment to doing no harm
B) the rejection of clandestine research
C) responsibilities toward the host country and the people you are studying
D) all of the above

Question 49

The application of the comparative method in his research in Papua New Guinea led coauthor Robert Welsch to focus on

A) museum collections
B) published and unpublished accounts of mask collectors who visited different villages
C) published and unpublished accounts of mask collectors who visited different villages
D) all of the above

Question 50

Describe how a cultural relativist would study the ethical principles of another culture.

Question 51

How could an anthropological perspective on diversity be used to explain social change in your community?

Question 52

Under what conditions would you use informed consent, and why?

Question 53

What role do you think the scientific method plays in the application of anthropology to solving social problems?

Question 54

How would you use anthropology's holistic perspective to understand the effects of low-fat diets in American lives?

Question 55

Could you apply the primary ethical principles of anthropology to another academic discipline? Why or why not?

Question 56

What is a common thread or theme that runs through all the subfields of anthropology?

Question 57

How did the Enlightenment provide a path to the development of anthropology as an academic discipline?

Question 58

What were the main concerns that emerged in the 1850s, and how did they shape professional anthropology?

Question 59

Why do you think anthropologists are so concerned with the ethics of research?