Deck 11: Interpreting Past Cultural Systems

Question 1

To appease their gods of the sky, the Mexica of Central America would ________.

A) build ever-taller pyramids
B) hold religious ceremonies of human sacrifice
C) chart the movement of the stars and planets
D) make peace treaties with their enemies

Answer 1

B

Question 2

What are the relationships that hold a group of people together called?

A) stratification
B) social archaeology
C) social structure
D) paleoarchaeology

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which of the following are not considered part of the archaeological model of culture?

A) technology and material culture
B) settlement and subsistence patterns
C) warfare and competition with other groups
D) social structure and social organization

Answer 3

C

Question 4

What is the study of past ways of thought, as inferred from material remains, called?

A) cognitive archaeology
B) social archaeology
C) psychological archaeology
D) processual archaeology

Question 5

Anatomically modern humans are called ________.

A) Australopithecus
B) Homo erectus
C) Homo sapiens sapiens
D) Neanderthals

Question 6

If only functional criteria can be tied to an object, its most likely use is ________.

A) nonutilitarian
B) utilitarian
C) ceremonial
D) symbolic

Question 7

All societies have ________ systems, with rules (or social norms) for descent, reciprocity, marriage, and residence.

A) kinship
B) urban
C) band
D) chiefdom

Question 8

Which of the following is not a method archaeologists use to study gender in an ancient society?

A) burial analysis
B) thin section analysis
C) dietary analysis
D) artistic representations

Question 9

When archaeologists assume that the earliest ethnographic or historically known group in an area is the direct descendant of the latest archaeological group in the same area, this is called ________.

A) ethnographic analogy
B) ethnographic determinism
C) the direct historical approach
D) historical archaeology

Question 10

Small-scale, nonstratified societies with hunting and gathering as their primary subsistence system are typically organized as ________.

A) chiefdoms
B) states
C) civilizations
D) bands

Question 11

Most ________ are based on agriculture; have large, permanent settlements; a centralized political structure, a formal leader authorized to use force; and formal ranking.

A) chiefdoms
B) egalitarian societies
C) species
D) bands

Question 12

States are characterized by all of the following except for ________.

A) large populations
B) social stratification
C) formal record-keeping
D) egalitarianism

Question 13

The state systems that developed in Mesopotamia relied on grains of ________.

A) rice
B) wheat and barley
C) maize
D) sorghum

Question 14

The theory that suggests the need to defend agricultural systems led to state formation is called ________.

A) agricultural theory
B) warfare theory
C) multicausal theory
D) irrigation theory

Question 15

A life-size terracotta army of 7,000 soldiers was excavated near the tomb of Qin Shi Huangdi, who was the ________.

A) first emperor of China
B) last emperor of China
C) first emperor of the Han Dynasty
D) last emperor of the Zhou Dynasty

Question 16

Which native society in North America between about 1,100 and 600 years ago came closest to being a state-level group?

A) Kwakiutl
B) Cahokia
C) Chumash
D) Cheyenne

Question 17

The belief in a society of deities is called ________.

A) monotheism
B) animism
C) deism
D) polytheism

Question 18

In Mesoamerica, religious items were often deposited in cenotes, which are ________.

A) ceremonial temples
B) earthen altars
C) large, natural wells
D) sacred caves

Question 19

What is the understanding of one's universe called?

A) archeoastronomy
B) cosmic philosophy
C) deism
D) cosmology

Question 20

Large-scale images or designs made by removing soil or by piling rocks to create lines or designs are called ________.

A) geoglyphs
B) pictographs
C) representational art
D) petroglyphs

Question 21

In studying a particular individual, archaeologists usually look at the following except for ________.

A) craftsmanship of artifacts
B) cenotes
C) paleofeces
D) skeletons

Question 22

Describe how archaeologists see the society, social structure, and social organization of ancient people as different topics.

Question 23

Discuss the differences among bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states.

Question 24

Describe the various theories of the origin of states.

Question 25

What is the difference between cosmology and archeoastronomy?

Question 26

What are the ways in which individuals can be identified in the archaeological record?