Deck 12: Body Ideals and Outcomes

Question 1

Which of these activities involve embodied signaling?

A) painting one's country's or tribe's flag or totem on one's face
B) wearing a collegiate sweatshirt
C) having pierced ears
D) becoming a bodybuilder
E) Every action listed is a form of signaling that can be read by members of one's culture

Answer 1

E

Question 2

Populations affected by the 'nutritional transition' are:

A) subject to famine and hunger.
B) live longer lives due to increased nutritional opportunities.
C) generally have lots of time for recreational sports.
D) more prone to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and stroke.
E) No answer is correct.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

What are some downsides of the 'nutrition transition' that accompanies industrialization?

A) It can be involuntary, such as when globalization makes local foods more easily available than Western foods
B) It can be involuntary, such as when capitalism supports pollution that makes it dangerous to live off the land
C) It protects us against the diseases of modernity, particularly among the poor
D) Cheaper cuts of meat are all made into pet food
E) It stops people from achieving an 'epidemiological transition'

Answer 3

B

Question 4

The 'nutrition transition':

A) can follow migration.
B) may result from environmental injustices that make living off the land too risky.
C) can be forced upon a population as a result of colonization.
D) may make a population less prone to famine or hunger.
E) All of these things are true

Question 5

The human body (generally speaking) has not yet evolved to deal with foods containing:

A) low calorie sugar substitutes
B) broccoli, cabbage, and brussels sprouts
C) mutton flaps
D) butter
E) gluten

Question 6

In truly 'open' societies, social status is NOT:

A) achieved.
B) earned.
C) flexible.
D) birth-based.
E) merit-based.

Question 7

In 'closed' societies, social class generally is NOT:

A) ascribed.
B) birth-based.
C) anchored in a rite of passage.
D) fixed.
E) flexible

Question 8

When we compare the body mass indexes (BMIs) of northern and southern or US-based and Mexico-based Pima (Tohono O'odham), we see that:

A) Those in the USA have more obesity and diabetes due to genes
B) Those in the USA have less obesity and diabetes due to lifestyle factors (diet, activity)
C) Those in Mexico have less obesity and diabetes due to genes
D) Those in Mexico have less obesity and diabetes due to not having not experienced the 'nutrition transition'
E) Those in the USA have less obesity and diabetes due to having undergone the 'nutrition transition'

Question 9

Eating a Westernized diet _____ [does what to] the body's fat storage mechanisms, particularly in disadvantaged stressed, and/or minoritized populations.

A) puts a brake on
B) acts as lever to set in motion
C) minimizes or decreases
D) stifles or blunts
E) metabolizes

Question 10

After being on a low-calorie diet for a while, you will have a lower metabolic rate and weight loss will slow down. Why?

A) The body lowers its metabolic set points to try to regain homeostasis.
B) This simply isn't true.
C) To lower your appetite in anticipation of times when food will be abundant
D) Not enough exercise
E) To burn more calories

Question 11

Why might someone whose mother was experiencing hunger during their gestation put on or gain weight easily?

A) As a fetus they were primed for a life of scarcity; their bodies store fat for use in hard times
B) They come out of the womb hungry too
C) The experience in the womb primed them for a time of abundance
D) They will not; this is a myth.
E) They store fat less efficiently due to pre-natal deprivation

Question 12

Cultures generally celebrate fat bodies LESS when they have MORE _______.

A) equality
B) healthcare
C) food
D) water
E) trees

Question 13

What is the technical term for when men experience morning sickness and other signs of pregnancy as a part of their active participation in gestation?

A) Alloparenting.
B) Replication.
C) Couvade.
D) Co-parenting.
E) Sympathetic psychosis

Question 14

'Affiliative' body decoration and modification are:

A) temporary, flexible
B) stigmatized
C) deviant, counter-cultural
D) normative, conforming
E) permanent, fixed

Question 15

In regard to fat females, Azawagh Arab (Moor) people believe that:

A) modern diets have caused the increase in obesity.
B) a large woman can ground or anchor her family in a way that a light woman cannot.
C) it is an indication of laziness or slothfulness.
D) Actually, men in this culture are fat, not women.
E) drinking alcohol causes the fatness.

Question 16

The Fijian idea that fatness signifies a wealth of social connections and financial resources and the old European belief that a small nose indicates that at least one of one's parents was sexually degenerate have what in common?

A) They both show the importance of social relationships to an individual's place in society.
B) They are fake examples; we never read about them.
C) In both instances, the body is stigmatized.
D) In both instances, only women are involved.
E) These negate (falsify, undermine) the argument that the body can serve as a text.

Question 17

Given the following statements, which best explains recent rises in body weight worldwide?

A) Cheaper foods often contain more calories.
B) New world diseases make being 'skinny' more stigmatizing.
C) People are taller now, and that's why we weigh more.
D) Body weight has actually not been rising.
E) The recession-linked shortage of labor-saving devices.

Question 18

Which of the following methods of body decoration/modification best demonstrates an everyday, normative affiliation with pertaining to mainstream US society? (not to be confused with 'student society')?

A) removing all the hair from your lower face
B) removing all the hair from your head
C) removing your eyebrows
D) dying your hair red, white, and blue
E) none; hair is not used to demonstrate affiliation

Question 19

In the United States, calling shaving (or other forms of hair removal) a 'hygiene' practice masks (obscures; diverts attention from) its:

A) role in helping maintain normative gender (and other socio-cultural) distinctions.
B) role in helping to curb aggression.
C) value for keeping people healthy.
D) disease-spreading function.
E) natural basis.

Question 20

The southern Pima people living in the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico have much lower rates of obesity, overweight, and diabetes than the northern Pima people (e.g., Tohono O'odham), due largely to all of the following factors EXCEPT for:(not including) that:

A) their traditional subsistence practices remain in place.
B) their superior genetics prevent fat accumulation.
C) their lifestyle is physically rigorous.
D) their diet retains healthful ingredients.
E) they do not eat the US federal government's replacement foods.

Question 21

The Tohono O'odham went from being a fit population with no incidence of diabetes to one of the most diabetes prone groups in the United States. What did NOT change?

A) their lifestyle
B) their farming practices and related diet
C) their physical activity pattern
D) their genome
E) Actually, all these things changed.

Question 22

Which of the following exposures in the womb affects your food intake and weight after you are born?

A) external leptin levels
B) the flavors of some of the foods that your biological mom eats
C) how much food your biological mom is able to eat
D) the flavors of, and the volume of , the food that your biological mom ate while pregnant with you.eats
E) nothing listed has a later effect

Question 23

The shaved head of the a convict is what kind of body decoration/modification?

A) fixed, imposed, and stigmatizing
B) acquired, flexible, and hereditary.
C) flexible, disaffiliative, and imposed
D) affiliative, fixed, and voluntary
E) voluntary, flexible, and disaffiliative

Question 24

To help decrease the chances that your baby children's risk of developing health complications like does not grow up prone to overweight or obesity or diabetes , try NOT to:

A) eat a lot while pregnant.
B) restrict calories while pregnant.
C) read too many diet magazines.
D) exercise while pregnant.
E) use glassware instead of BPA-containing plastics.

Question 25

Which of the following doesis NOT accurately depict one of the varying a dimensions of along which body decoration/modification practices vary?

A) flexible (temporary) or fixed (permanent)
B) self-imposed (voluntary, elected) or imposed (stigma)
C) hereditary (biological) or acquired (cultural)
D) affiliative (normative) or disaffiliative (deviant)
E) All of the given answers are correct.

Question 26

Which of the following is NOT a function of we identified for body decoration and modification?

A) selectivityve
B) communicating
C) transforming
D) protective
E) None of the given answers is correct.

Question 27

Bodies that do NOT conform to cultural norms or ideals are most likely to be associated culturally with:

A) higher social status.
B) moral health.
C) stigma.
D) beauty.
E) bad luck.

Question 28

People who do NOT have a particular form of body modification in a society that practices that particular form (e.g., someone whose teeth are not filed to points in a teeth-filing culture) are often considered by others in that culture to be:

A) socially superior.
B) nicer to look at as well as socially superior.
C) ugly.
D) not human.
E) ugly AND not human.

Question 29

Body decoration/modification communicates information about all of the following EXCEPT (not including):

A) one's achievements.
B) cultural aesthetic or beauty ideals.
C) self-perception.ived role incongruity.
D) group affiliation and belonging.
E) social position.

Question 30

Which of the following is NOT one of the varying dimensions of body decoration/modification that can be used to compare people or culturesone of the dimensions along which body decoration/modification varies when comparing groups of behaviorally modern humans (humans with culture)?

A) whether decorations/modifications are or are not practiced
B) whether decorations/modifications are fixed or flexible
C) whether decorations/modifications are temporary or permanent
D) whether decorations/modifications are self-imposed or imposed by others
E) whether decorations/modifications are affilliativeaffiliative or disaffiliative.disaffiliative

Question 31

Body decoration/modification was not seen in human society until:

A) the cultural revolution occurred (culture emerged).
B) the agricultural revolution occurred (and specialists emerged).
C) the industrial revolution (when technologies improved).
D) about 10,000 years ago.
E) about 1,000 years ago.

Question 32

Which of the following entails 'writing' a cultural message into/onto the body?

A) getting a tattoo
B) becoming a body builder
C) keeping ones nails and hair well-trimmed
D) wearing a crazy wig at a soccer/football game
E) All of the answers given are correct.

Question 33

When we 'read' each other's bodies we make social and other assumptions based on:

A) apparent sexgender.
B) All of the answers are correct.
C) carriagehabitual comportment.
D) height and weight.
E) the state of the teeth.

Question 34

How do bBody decorations/modifications works to communicate information about people and their culturee because?:

A) bodies can be read, like texts.
B) cultures have visual vocabularies.
C) people embody culture.
D) None of the answers is right.
E) All three substantive answers are right.

Question 35

Which cultures have 'visual vocabularies'?

A) all cultures
B) foragers (hunter-gatherers)
C) artistic cultures
D) cultures in which everyone is deaf
E) cultures that have adopted smart technology

Question 36

Conformity to one's culturale's norms for concerning tattoos, hairstyles, and so on conveys information regarding one's:

A) private thoughts.
B) fertility.
C) cultural affiliation.
D) intelligence.
E) fitness.

Question 37

'John Bull,' Britain's equivalent to 'Uncle Sam,' had a body that looked:

A) tall and thin, and that saw little sun (like that of a prisoner).
B) fat and happy, and decidedly middle-class; he was a model citizen.
C) very upper (top) class in dress, stature, and comportment.
D) like that of a man who hated sports, food, and socializing; he was very anti-social.
E) young; he was a little child, which signified the youth of the nation.

Question 38

Cross-culturally, social and political non-conformers are often physically marked or marked on their clothing with a sign of:

A) profundity.
B) stigma.
C) blessing.
D) exoneration.
E) execution

Question 39

What would be anA example of a common 'stigmata' previously usedmeant to warn others that a person wasis not an upstanding or otherwise valued member of society? is the/a:

A) forcibly shaved head.
B) non-elective tattoo.
C) label or sign sewn onto or otherwise attached to his or her clothing.
D) chopped-off hand.
E) All of these things have variously been used to stigmatize people.

Question 40

Bodies that conform to cultural norms/ or ideals index or are associated with:are most likely to be associated culturally with:

A) embodiment.
B) good citizenship.
C) stigma.
D) disease.
E) criminal behavior.

Question 41

Cultural ideals standards for male and female beauty:

A) change over time, and vary from culture to culture.
B) have changed over time but are the same from culture to culture.
C) are universal (the same everywhere, all the time).
D) are wholly determined by biology.
E) are wholly determined by culture.

Question 42

Which of Given the ideal female body for the following cultures promotes the thinnest female body ideal?, which is skinniest?

A) Jamaican
B) Fijian
C) West African
D) Azawagh Arabian
E) Mmainstream North AmericaUSn

Question 43

Mainstream North Americans like to think of the body as a private, independent creation. Which of the following best supports that idea?

A) the evolved breastfeeding system of mother and child
B) evolved patterns of adult and infant co-sleeping
C) the practice in some cultures of 'couvade'
D) None of the answers provided supports the idea.
E) Fijian and Jamaican beliefs that body size reflects the health of one's social relations

Question 44

When people practice 'couvade,' which of the following happens?

A) They take on body modifications that do not conform to the rest of the population.
B) The bodies of a pregnant couple are seen or act as one, so that the man can experience pregnancy symptoms.
C) Body modifications made to enhance beauty actually cause biological damage.
D) Body modifications are hidden under one's clothing, or kept private.
E) Weight and eating habits become intertwined.

Question 45

In many traditional cultures (e.g., in Jamaican tradition), slenderness or weight loss signals:

A) increased wealth.
B) attainment of high social status.
C) social neglect.
D) ample food supply.
E) proper nutrition.

Question 46

Cross-culturally, and for most of history, bigger bodies are valued because they:

A) are common.
B) are natural.
C) ensure reproductive success and survival in times of scarcity.
D) signify happiness.
E) All of the answers given are correct.

Question 47

Poor people once were skinny, but now they are generally fat. This is because:

A) cheaper food now contains more calories than expensive food, generally speaking.
B) they are lazy.
C) they are not working and so use less energy than employed people today use.
D) they do not care about themselves.
E) All of the answers given are correct.

Question 48

At the proximate level, and in relation to health status, one key difference between the Southern (Mexican) Pima and the Northern (US) Pima is that:

A) the Southern Pima are much more active physically than the Northern Pima.
B) the Southern Pima diet is high in fat and low in fiber when compared to the diet typically eaten by the Northern Pima.
C) the Northern Pima eat less and exercise more.
D) among the Southern Pima, the ratio between the number of calories in (eaten) and the number of calories out (burned) is much farther apart than among the Northern Pima, for whom the ratio is nearly one to one.
E) This is a bogus question; there is no difference!

Question 49

The Tohono O'odham (Northern Pima) are at a high risk for obesity and diabetes because:

A) their genome changed after their river was diverted and they could no longer farm.
B) when their river was diverteddiverted, they had were left with onlyonly unhealthy ful foods to eat , and they also became relatively inactive physically.
C) they were starving when the US government decided to provide them with free food, so their bodies went into a high-drive fat storage mode in response.
D) This is a trick question because the Southern Pima are the ones who are at a heightened risk.
E) they are simply prone to these conditions biologically.

Question 50

What is the problem with having a lowered (slower) metabolism when food is plentiful, and liberally eaten?

A) Fewer calories taken in are stored than would be the case with a 'normal' metabolism, leading to obesity.
B) More of the calories taken in are stored than would be the case with a 'normal' metabolism, leading to obesity.
C) More calories are burned than would be the case with a 'normal' metabolism, leading to weight decline.
D) There is no difference caused by having a high or low metabolism.
E) More calories are taken in but more are burned or used.

Question 51

To lose weight, the best WORST thing/s to do is:/are:

A) drink diet soda instead of regular, sugary soda.
B) get more exercise.
C) eat fewer calories.
D) use fewer labor saving devices.get more exercise and eat fewer calories.
E) play closer attention to body's habituation signals.use fewer labor saving devices.

Question 52

Our evolved digestive and metabolic physiology and biochemistry:

A) are not well-suited to many of the ingredients used in processed foods today.
B) can easily handle industrially processed food; it is unprocessed food that is hard to digest.
C) have kept up incredibly well with changes in our food supply, so that things like artificial sugar do not cause our bodies any problems.
D) have not changed since well before the onset of pastoralism and agriculture.
E) make it very hard for most people to get fat.

Question 53

If calories are restricted during gestation, the fetus is:

A) primed for a life of scarcity.
B) primed for a life of plenty.
C) genetically determined to be obese.
D) primed not to accumulate and store fat.
E) None of the answers is correct.

Question 54

In the (mainstream) United States, fat phobia or fat hatred can be traced to:

A) post-World War I understandings about greed (hoarding) and sharing.
B) ideas about self control.
C) the rise of sedentary desk jobs and labor saving devices.
D) the advent of ready-to-wear clothing, with numerical sizes that allowed easy comparisons.
E) All answers given are correct.

Question 55

Why do members of mainstream US society fear or hate fat bodies?

A) to distinguish themselves from 'primitive' societies, which value fat accumulation
B) it began during the American Revolutionary War, as a way of differentiating the United States from the British (i.e., John Bull)
C) being fat became associated with gluttony and greed during and after World War I, when food was scarce
D) doctors in the late 18th century thought that fat was connected with cholera
E) from social media sources starting in the 1990s

Question 56

Fat bodies are generally more highly valued than thin ones in sociocultural contexts where:

A) food of all kinds is abundant.
B) diets are mostly made up of fatty, high calorie foods.
C) fatty and high calorie foods are a scarce resource.
D) high fertility and potential overpopulation are big problems.
E) rich, high status people are thin.

Question 57

Thin bodies are generally more highly valued than fat ones in sociocultural contexts where:

A) food of all kinds is abundant and widely available.
B) they signify a lack of resources and low status.
C) fatty and high calorie foods are a scarce resource.
D) exerting self-control (will power) is seen as a vice or sinful.
E) infertility is a widespread problem.

Question 58

A graduating college senior realizes she cannot attend graduation in person. She decides to get a tattoo of a newly emerged butterfly instead, after she turns in her last college paper. Given the following choices, what term best describes the kind of body decoration/modification she engages in?

A) stigmatizing
B) imposed
C) performative
D) protective
E) liminal

Question 59

A body modification meant to signify one's positive identification with a particular culture or subgroup is:

A) fixed
B) reincorporative
C) affiliative
D) imposed
E) facilitative

Question 60

The choice made by members of the Beatles to grow their hair long despite contrary social expectations provides an example of which kind of body decoration/modification?

A) disaffiliative
B) permanent
C) imposed
D) affiliative
E) protective

Question 61

The body decoration/modification form known as 'scarification':

A) is a stigmatizing process.
B) is used to mark people as criminals or outsiders.
C) entails artistic scar patterns that communicate vital information about one's social status to those who can see them.
D) works better on light skin than on dark skin.
E) often results when piercings go bad or get infected.

Question 62

What is the main variable to consider when distinguishing between a 'closed' society and an 'open' society?

A) the degree of social mobility individuals are allowed
B) whether or not outsiders are made welcome
C) economic standing
D) how 'primitive' the society is
E) diet

Question 63

A society in which a person's social status is firmly based on birth is an example of:

A) an open society.
B) a hierarchical society.
C) a closed society.
D) a mobile society.
E) a wealthy society.

Question 64

Why are permanent body modifications more likely (more common) in 'closed' societies than in 'open' ones?

A) Closed societies give people more options in terms of body modification.
B) Permanent body modifications are more economical than non-permanent ones.
C) Open societies tend to place more emphasis on permanence.
D) Social roles do not change once ascribed or earned in a closed society.
E) There is no clear reason.

Question 65

When compared to societies that favor permanent body modification, societies with lots of temporary forms of body decoration are generally:

A) closed, favoring ascribed or born-to statuses.
B) open, with high social mobility.
C) in favor of merit-based status achievement.
D) totally egalitarian.
E) state-based.

Question 66

The three functions of body decoration/modification are to:

A) communicate, protect, and/or transform.
B) communicate, perform, and/or transform.
C) protect, perform, and/or transform.
D) transform, protect, affiliate.
E) stigmatize, protect, affiliate.

Question 67

During what phase of a boy's 'initiation' into manhood puberty ceremony do body modification processes such as tattooing or circumcision generally take place?

A) liminal
B) incorporative or re-incorporative
C) 'rite of passage'
D) pre-liminal
E) separation

Question 68

Undertaking a 'permanent' form of body modification in the middle of a 'rite of passage' serves an important rolewhich of the following ends.?

A) allostatic
B) economic
C) liminalcalmingization
D) performative
E) disaffiliative

Question 69

If a body modification is used to transform a person from one status to another, then it is likely what type of modification?

A) communicative
B) performative
C) painful
D) It is all three of the substantive things mentioned.
E) No answer provided is correct.

Question 70

Which of the following practices is defined as abusive (sadistic, inhumane) by people outside of the US mainstream?

A) orthodontia
B) having a child sleep in its own crib in its own room
C) bringing a child to daycare
D) weaning a child at six months of age
E) All of the above.everything mentioned has been labeled with sincerity and real concern as child abuse by members of other cultures