Deck 25: Culture and Development

Question 1

Modernization theories were based on which belief?

A) That reason is a foreign concept to most people in the developing world
B) That reason is insufficient for guiding human development
C) That reason drives economic progress
D) That reason is a universal human trait
E) That reason is not as important as equality

Answer 1

D

Question 2

According to Thompson, which of the following is true about culture?

A) It is materially rather than symbolically based.
B) It is the pattern of meanings embodied in symbolic forms.
C) It is inextricably linked to economics.
D) It is what makes human societies different and distinct from one another.
E) It is manifested in the clothing, food, and music of a given social group.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

How did the definition of culture change from the sixteenth century onward?

A) It was extended to the cultivation of the mind.
B) It dealt with the high arts of music, poetry, and theatre.
C) It equated refinement as juxtaposed to barbarism.
D) It took its meaning from the golden age of the Roman Empire.
E) It was rooted in the idea of cultivation of animals or crops.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which of the following is a distinctive feature of human beings?

A) An innate sense of spatial differentiation
B) The urge to live in groups larger than the family unit
C) An appreciation for artistic works
D) The ability to us tools to make work easier
E) The possession of fully developed language skills

Question 5

Where do many misunderstandings about culture stem from?

A) It being analyzed materially, rather than on a purely symbolic level
B) Dramatic political and religious differences
C) The assumption that it is driven by economics
D) Presumptions of "universality"
E) The belief that culture can be analyzed in the absence of economic considerations

Question 6

What is demonstrated by the shaping of culture through modern means of communication and commodification?

A) The insubstantial role of ideas in shaping culture
B) The mixed motivations of human behaviour
C) The influence of material forces
D) The problem of determining causal relationships
E) The dominant role of economics in culture studies

Question 7

One of the most important debates within social science has been between which two ideologies?

A) Communism and capitalism
B) Materialism and idealism
C) Materialism and symbolism
D) Conservatism and liberalism
E) Realism and idealism

Question 8

Who introduced the theory of the "Protestant ethic"?

A) Max Weber
B) Michel Foucault
C) Clifford Geertz
D) Émile Durkheim
E) Karl Marx

Question 9

What is claimed to be a cultural impediment to economic growth in transitional and developing countries?

A) Lack of modernization
B) Overemphasis on group values
C) Traditional values
D) Corruption
E) Democracy

Question 10

What provides the cultural underpinnings of a dominant mode of development?

A) Cultural elites
B) Symbolic objects
C) Traditions
D) Homogeneity
E) Socio-economics

Question 11

The recent effort by Hindu fundamentalists to define Indian nationalism as Hindu is an illustration of which of the following?

A) Cultural divisiveness
B) Cultural relativism
C) Culturally-based power dynamics
D) The myth of nationalism
E) The strength of nationalism

Question 12

In the 1970s, which of the following problems was it hypothesized satellite TV would solve?

A) Education
B) Public health
C) Nutrition
D) Illiteracy
E) All of the above

Question 13

What concept is embodied by Apple's release of a new product every few months?

A) Predatory corporatism
B) Planned obsolescence
C) Poor planning cycles
D) Green technology
E) Postmodern sensibilities

Question 14

James Scott researched the significance of which of the following in Malaysian society?

A) Symbolic resistance
B) Culture
C) Materialism
D) Capitalist resistance
E) Dominant cultural ideologies

Question 15

According to Jonathan Crush, which of the following is true about development discourse?

A) It is rooted in the rise of the West and the history of capitalism.
B) It is universally transferable.
C) It is well-suited to Third World economies.
D) It is generally misleading.
E) It is a tool for the oppressed.

Question 16

Which of the following is true, according to Edward Said's Orientalism?

A) It reinforced common assumptions about the Orient
B) It deconstructed common assumptions about the Orient
C) It is critical of Asian cultures
D) It championed Asian economic policy
E) It is inherently racist

Question 17

Which of the following is NOT a weakness of postmodern theories on culture and development?

A) They are counter-productive for the marginalized and oppressed for whom they claim to speak
B) They view culture as a homogeneous and essentialist whole
C) They adopt an uncritical attitude toward tradition
D) They are culturally relativistic
E) They are overly economistic and fail to consider non-material aspects of culture

Question 18

While postmodern theories start out with the intention of preaching tolerance, they come dangerously close to a celebration of which of the following?

A) Elitism
B) Domination
C) Underrepresentation
D) Objectivity
E) Repression

Question 19

What crucial element does the postmodern framework overlook when analyzing culture?

A) Objective truth
B) Relations of power
C) Economic exploitation
D) Regional affinities
E) Traditionalism

Question 20

What aspect of post-colonial theory takes away from an engagement with the present?

A) The creation of a false dichotomy between the future and the past
B) The lack of causal analysis
C) An obsessive focus on colonialism and Eurocentrism
D) The inability to account for cultural diffusion
E) An over emphasis on socio-economics

Question 21

Which of the following is true about postmodern theories?

A) They are generally critical of cultural relativism.
B) They consider culture to be the foundation of development.
C) They are prone to slide into cultural relativism.
D) They embrace universalism.
E) They consider cultural practices to be either "good" or "bad."

Question 22

The "Asian values" thesis put forward by Lee Kuan Yew is an example of which of the following?

A) Racist cultural analysis
B) Legitimate cultural analysis
C) Elites using cultural propaganda to obtain legitimacy
D) Cultural relativism
E) Critical postmodern discourse

Question 23

Why has culture often been a misunderstood concept?

A) It is often used rather strictly
B) People do not read enough literature about the concept
C) It usually denotes contradictory meanings
D) It never denotes contradictory meanings
E) It denotes a clash of civilizations

Question 24

What did the Latin word cultura refer to?

A) The cultivation or the nurturing of animals or crops
B) The cultivation or the nurturing of animals, crops, or human begins
C) The nurturing of human beings
D) The cultivation of crops
E) The nurturing of animals

Question 25

Who argued that "development discourse is rooted in the rise of the West"?

A) Karl Marx
B) Jonathan Crush
C) Max Weber
D) Clifford Geertz
E) E.B. Tylor

Question 26

What is the term for the impersonal, a negative moral connotation attached to labour, control over nature, and a negative view of illness?

A) Cultura
B) Nationalism
C) Fidnaa
D) Episteme
E) Colonialism

Question 27

What does the role of technology in present-day culture tell us about culture as a whole?

A) That culture does not exist in a vacuum, rather it is constantly shaped by material forces
B) That culture is easily manipulated by consumerism
C) That culture is not as complex as previously believed
D) That cultures are not identical therefore some are not affected by technology
E) That global culture has shifted toward favouring manufacturing and retailing

Question 28

Why is binary thinking problematic when discussing culture?

A) It ignores the injustices of the past
B) It puts blame on factors that have no effect on culture
C) It does not help us arrive at a proper understanding of culture
D) It goes against the clear definition of culture
E) It neglects to include cultures that do not fit in the binary distinctions

Question 29

What do modernization theorists typically blame for slowness of economic growth?

A) Inequality
B) Insufficient scientific and technological resources
C) "Backward" mentalities of "traditional" societies
D) Capitalist exploitation
E) Poverty

Question 30

Which of the following development phenomena has culture assumed significance in explaining?

A) Poverty
B) Economic growth
C) Violence
D) None of the above
E) All of the above

Question 31

The material can be effectively separated from the cultural.

Question 32

In development, culture has become increasingly popular as a way to explain poverty, growth, and violence.

Question 33

The experience of colonialism led to a questioning of the value of "reason."

Question 34

The distribution of cattle in western India in 2006 is a successful application of modernization theory.

Question 35

Culture can be seen as a description of a particular way of life.

Question 36

Mass culture is usually produced "from below," and stands in opposition to the dominant culture.

Question 37

Many misunderstandings about culture stem from the attempt to analyze it in conjunction with economic aspects.

Question 38

Modern culture and mass media are inextricably linked.

Question 39

According to Marshall Sahlins, a lack of material possessions is the universal defining feature of poverty.

Question 40

It is necessary to make a sharp distinction between materialism and idealism.

Question 41

Karl Marx established the theory of the Protestant ethic.

Question 42

Nationalism is often used as a symbolic tool by powerful members of society.

Question 43

The ruling classes' ideological and material interests usually dominate the art and culture of a given place and time.

Question 44

The "American dream" is a dominant cultural idea viewing success as stemming simply from hard work and individual talent.

Question 45

Mass media is the primary medium for the Global South to influence the values of the Global North.

Question 46

According to Amartya Sen, culture can be both a means to, and an end of, development.

Question 47

Efforts to justify colonialism by labelling colonized people as "children" who needed to be looked after seriously damaged Indigenous ways of life and knowledge.

Question 48

Post-development theories stress the importance of culture in development.

Question 49

Postmodernism is a grand unifying theory.

Question 50

Postmodern theory cannot avoid the slide into cultural relativism.

Question 51

The Ethiopian concept of fidnaa holds a lot in common with modern development.

Question 52

Criticism of oppression and the struggle for equality are not only European or modern values.

Question 53

Social justice can still be achieved without an appeal to universalism.

Question 54

The propagation of "Asian values" is an attempt to legitimate elite rule in Singapore.

Question 55

Charles Taylor suggests a means to avoid cultural relativism is to appeal to shared human constants.

Question 56

Culture came to mean a progressive process of human development towards refinement based on rural and primitive principles.

Question 57

An elitist definition of culture can suggest that culture belong only to a few people.

Question 58

The discipline of anthropology helped correct the notion of the inferiority of non-European cultures.

Question 59

New definitions of culture are still not fully devoid of the Eurocentric assumptions of the evolutionary and elitist concept of culture.

Question 60

Since one of the most distinctive features of humans is language, the study of culture should be focused on progress.

Question 61

How did colonizers use culture to defend their domination over Indigenous populations?

Question 62

How does the 2006 Indian government relief package embody the tension between modernization and traditional culture?

Question 63

Discuss various definitions of the term "culture."

Question 64

Discuss how the lack of material possessions does not make tribal people poor but rather free.

Question 65

Discuss the debate between materialist and idealist positions on culture.

Question 66

Briefly describe Weber's notion of the "Protestant ethic."

Question 67

How can culture be used as a means of domination?

Question 68

Discuss the myth of homogeneous cultures in the context of nationalism.

Question 69

How has the "American dream" acquired an ideological form?

Question 70

Discuss the use of symbolic resistance.

Question 71

How have mass media impacted traditional cultural practices?

Question 72

What are the practical concerns of wastefulness of consumerism in the Global South?

Question 73

Why has the perceived failure of "development" led to the "cultural turn"?

Question 74

How do gossip, songs, and jokes form a critique of power?

Question 75

How has the symbol of Che Guevara been appropriated by capitalism?

Question 76

Discuss Edward Said's Orientalism and how it perceives the construction and perception of culture.

Question 77

Present several critiques of postmodern thinking about culture and development.

Question 78

Why might it be dangerous to abandon all notions of universalism?

Question 79

Discuss the "Asian values" thesis.

Question 80

What has been the importance of the development of anthropology in the understanding of the concept of culture?