Deck 7: Making a Living

Question 1

Why do slash-and-burn cultivators stop using a plot of land every two to three years?

A) They burn so much wood that the air becomes too polluted to support a healthful existence.
B) Slash-and-burn cultivation is unique to segmentary-lineage organized societies, and crop rotation follows the cycle of interlineage exchange.
C) Slash-and-burn cultivation is associated with big-game hunting, which requires regular movement so as not to deplete the animal population.
D) Slash-and-burn cultivators use relatively primitive irrigation systems, which have to be repaired every three to four years.
E) They do not use fertilizer; thus, their crops exhaust the soil quickly.

Answer 1

They do not use fertilizer; thus, their crops exhaust the soil quickly.

Question 2

Despite differences arising from environmental variation, all foraging economies have shared one essential feature, their

A) emphasis on devising new forms of organic pesticides.
B) reliance on welfare supplied by state-level societies.
C) willingness to test out new food-producing technologies to see if they are any better than what they are used to.
D) interest in developing irrigation technologies to control sources of water.
E) reliance on available natural resources for their subsistence, rather than controlling the reproduction of plants and animals.

Answer 2

reliance on available natural resources for their subsistence, rather than controlling the reproduction of plants and animals.

Question 3

Which of the following statements about irrigation is NOT true?

A) Irrigated fields typically increase in value through time.
B) Irrigation is one of the defining characteristics of foraging societies.
C) Irrigation usually enriches the soil.
D) The Betsileo of Madagascar used irrigation intensively.
E) Irrigation fields are labor intensive compared to swidden (burned over) fields.

Answer 3

Irrigation is one of the defining characteristics of foraging societies.

Question 4

Why do anthropologists question the idea that present-day foragers can be compared to Paleolithic foragers?

A) There are no present-day foragers.
B) The types of foraging vary so widely that few generalizations can be drawn.
C) Present-day foragers have been in contact with food-producing and industrialized societies for long periods of time, and all live within nation-states that inevitably affect their livelihood.
D) Paleolithic foragers were prelinguistic.
E) Paleolithic foragers were not Homo sapiens.

Question 5

Which of the following was a characteristic shared by recent foraging communities?

A) They fished a great deal.
B) They relied on welfare supplied by state-level societies.
C) They spoke simplified languages.
D) They lived in marginal environments that were of little interest to food-producing societies.
E) They devolved to foraging from a more advanced level of subsistence.

Question 6

Which of the following is most characteristic of foragers?

A) unilineal descent and ancestor worship
B) territoriality and organized warfare
C) high mobility and small groups with flexible affiliations
D) a redistributive economy and specialized leadership roles
E) permanent villages and full-time priests

Question 7

Which of the following does NOT occur in moving along the cultivation continuum?

A) Population density increases.
B) Societies become more egalitarian.
C) Village size increases.
D) Villages are located closer together.
E) Land is used more intensively.

Question 8

Intensive agriculture

A) has a significant impact on the environment, but this impact is very localized and can be controlled.
B) can actually breed greater ecological diversity.
C) is not ecologically destructive when it is done with fuel-efficient machinery.
D) has significant environmental effects such as deforestation, water pollution, and reduction of ecological diversity.
E) is an ecological improvement over sectorial fallowing.

Question 9

What kinds of societies typically are associated with slash-and-burn cultivation?

A) foraging societies
B) state-level societies
C) hydraulic societies
D) nonindustrial societies
E) nomadic societies

Question 10

In recent times, many foraging groups have been exposed to the idea of food production but have never adopted it. Why?

A) They did not have the skills or tools to do so.
B) Their own economies provided a perfectly adequate and nutritious diet, with a lot less work.
C) People naturally resist change, especially foragers.
D) They had to ask permission from the state to do so.
E) They did not realize the advantages of food production.

Question 11

A horticultural system of cultivation is characterized by

A) intensive use of land and human labor.
B) the use of irrigation and terracing.
C) developing almost exclusively in arid areas.
D) lack of proper knowledge about plant domestication.
E) periodic cycles of cultivation and fallowing.

Question 12

This chapter's description of the San Bushmen's relation to the government of Botswana is a telling example of how

A) foragers are willingly choosing to change their lifestyles and become a part of the global village.
B) foraging communities' identities are being reshaped by their relation with NGOs.
C) the foraging lifestyle has finally become a thing of the past.
D) more and more foragers have come under the control of nation-states and are now influenced by the forces of globalization.
E) human rights are limited.

Question 13

Yehudi Cohen's adaptive strategies

A) suggest hypothetical correlations-that is, a causal relation between two or more variables, such as economic and cultural variables.
B) suggest multidirectional relationships between a society's mean and its mode of production.
C) suggest that economic systems are a better way of categorizing societies than relying on cultural patterns.
D) suggest an association between the economies of societies and their social features.
E) have strong predictive powers when analyzed in computer models.

Question 14

Which of the following statements about shifting cultivation is true?

A) It is typically associated with the use of draft animals.
B) It cannot support permanent villages.
C) It requires irrigation.
D) It requires cultivators to change plots of land, with the fallowing durations varying in different societies.
E) It relies extensively on chemical fertilizers.

Question 15

What happens as one moves along the cultivation continuum?

A) Ceremonies and rituals become less formal.
B) More time for leisurely pursuits becomes available.
C) The use of land and labor intensifies.
D) There is a heavier reliance on swidden cultivation.
E) The use of communal cooking houses becomes more common.

Question 16

Because nonindustrial economies can have features of both horticulture and agriculture, it is useful to discuss cultivators as being arranged along a cultivation continuum. Which of the following generally occurs in moving toward the more intensive end of the cultivating continuum?

A) increased leisure time
B) improved overall health status of the population
C) increased egalitarianism
D) increasing economic specialization
E) longer fallow periods

Question 17

In this chapter we learned that we should not view contemporary foragers as isolated or pristine survivors of the Stone Age. In fact, all societies, no matter how small or seemingly remote, are influenced by regional and even global forces. For example, the Kamayurá Indians, who live in the middle of Xingu National Park in Brazil, have had to deal with which of the following threats to their livelihood?

A) the encroachment of guerrilla fighters and miners seeking tourmalines, a precious stone currently in high demand
B) drier weather from deforestation and climate change, and the negative impact that this has on their subsistence crops and the availability of food that they relied on through fishing and hunting
C) the encroachment of urban development of coastal Brazilians in search of a life closer to nature
D) pressure from missionaries attempting to transform them into a cash-crop society
E) unpredictable weather patterns that have increased precipitation in the region and turned jungle into swamp

Question 18

Which of the following is NOT characteristic of band-level societies?

A) an egalitarian social structure
B) nuclear families
C) the sexual division of labor
D) permanent villages
E) mechanisms of social control

Question 19

What is the term that refers to the type of pastoral economy in which part of the population moves with the herds while the rest stays in the village?

A) balanced subsistence
B) discretionary pastoralism
C) pastoral transhumance
D) foraging
E) transhumant nomadism

Question 20

Which of the following is a characteristic of most foraging societies?

A) social stratification
B) sedentism
C) egalitarianism
D) irrigation
E) large populations

Question 21

Which of the following economic principles is generally dominant in industrial society?

A) generalized exchange
B) the market principle
C) redistribution
D) negative reciprocity
E) balanced reciprocity

Question 22

This chapter's "Focus on Globalization" section discusses economic globalization. Which of the following is an outcome of our 21st-century global economy?

A) Modern-day transnational finance has shifted economic control of local life to outsiders.
B) Economic functions are now locally controlled.
C) Foreigners now finance only a small percentage of the U.S. national debt.
D) American companies are withdrawing from foreign markets.
E) With increasing globalization there is increased face-to-face contact in economic transactions.

Question 23

Most contemporary foragers live in remote areas, completely cut off from contact with other modern, agricultural, and industrial communities.

Question 24

Throughout the many years that Kottak has been doing research among the nonindustrial Betsileo of Madagascar, he has witnessed the impact of globalization on their livelihood. All of the following have threatened the traditional fabric of Betsileo life EXCEPT

A) agricultural intensification caused by population pressure.
B) the breakdown of social and political order, fueled by an increasing demand for cash.
C) the growing threat of cattle thieves, some of them relatively well-educated young men looking to make some cash.
D) the increased presence of anthropologists collaborating with local leaders to preserve their ancestral lands.
E) emigration.

Question 25

Economic relationships are characteristically embedded in other relationships, such as kinship, in all of the following kinds of societies EXCEPT

A) states.
B) foragers.
C) horticulturalists.
D) pastoralists.
E) chiefdoms.

Question 26

Which of the following kinds of exchange is characteristic among the members of a family?

A) generalized reciprocity
B) balanced reciprocity
C) negative reciprocity
D) redistribution
E) none of these exchanges

Question 27

Which of the following is NOT associated with the market principle?

A) the profit motive
B) the law of supply and demand
C) impersonal economic relations
D) industrialism
E) kin-based generalized reciprocity

Question 28

Foragers typically live in mobile bands that disperse in the dry season and aggregate in the rainy season.

Question 29

Horticulture refers to low-intensity farming that often uses slash-and-burn techniques to clear land.

Question 30

Generalized reciprocity

A) is characterized by the immediate return of the object exchanged.
B) is the characteristic form of exchange in egalitarian societies.
C) usually develops after redistribution but before the market principle.
D) disappears with the origin of the state.
E) is exemplified by silent trade.

Question 31

Domesticated animals, more specifically their manure and pulling capabilities, are key components of horticulture.

Question 32

In order to intensify production, agriculturalists frequently build irrigation canals and terraces.

Question 33

What are the means, or factors, of production?

A) synonyms of a society's mode of production
B) a society's institutional mechanisms for making sure that everyone is productive
C) the ways a society organizes production
D) labor forces organized by kinship ties
E) a society's major productive resources, such as land and other natural resources, labor, technology, and capital

Question 34

Which of the following statements about peasants is NOT true?

A) They all live in state-organized societies.
B) They owe rent to landlords.
C) They practice small-scale agriculture without modern technology such as chemical fertilizers and tractors.
D) They owe rent to the government.
E) They are not part of the world market.

Question 35

How are nonindustrial economic systems embedded in society?

A) People are not aware that they are working toward a goal.
B) The economic system has little to do with the everyday life of the people.
C) The economic system cannot easily be separated from other systems, such as kinship.
D) Most nonindustrial economies are managed systems.
E) Most economic activity takes place far from home.

Question 36

Unlike in industrial societies, where economic alienation is common, in nonindustrial societies,

A) alienation is pervasive.
B) alienation is suffered only among the poorer classes.
C) social relations are embedded in all relations except the economic ones.
D) the relations of production, distribution, and consumption are social relations with economic aspects.
E) alienation is an ascribed status.

Question 37

Economic anthropologists have been concerned with two main questions, one focusing on systems of human behavior and the other on the individuals who participate in those systems. The first question is: How are production, distribution, and consumption organized in different societies? The second question is:

A) Why has the myth of the profit-maximizing individual been so pervasive, despite evidence to the contrary?
B) What are the best ways to convince individuals in funding agencies of the value of ethnographic knowledge in the realm of economics?
C) What encourages overconsumption in Western economies?
D) What motivates people in different cultures to produce, distribute or exchange, and consume?
E) What has been the impact of globalization at the level of individuals?

Question 38

Who are peasants?

A) people who ignore social norms of behavior
B) small farmers who own their own land and sell all their crops to buy necessities
C) rural people who produce food for their own subsistence but also sell their surpluses
D) anyone who lives in the country
E) anyone who falls below the poverty line

Question 39

Which of the following statements about potlatching is NOT true?

A) Potlatching is an example of competitive feasting.
B) Potlatching was misinterpreted as a classical case of economically wasteful behavior.
C) Potlatching is a form of exchange that has long-term adaptive value.
D) Potlatching is a case that proves that the profit-maximizing motive is a human universal.
E) Potlatching is well documented among Native American communities of the North Pacific Coast of North America.

Question 40

What is a mode of production?

A) a postindustrial adaptive strategy, such as commercial agriculture or international mercantilism
B) the land, labor, technology, and capital of production
C) the way a society's social relations are organized to produce the labor necessary for generating the society's subsistence and energy needs
D) whether a society is foraging, horticulturalist, or agriculturalist
E) the cultural aspect of any given economy, such as changing fashions in the textile and clothing industry

Question 41

List the first four of Cohen's adaptive strategies and summarize the key features of each. What are the correlated variables for each strategy?

Question 42

A mode of production is a way of organizing production, whereas the means of production include the factors of production like land, labor, and technology.

Question 43

Imagine a foraging society that operates largely according to principles of generalized reciprocity, just prior to being colonized. Now defend the following statement: "Capitalism is not just an economic system, it is also a cultural system."

Question 44

Although agriculture is much more productive per acre than horticulture, horticulture is more reliable and dependable in the long run.

Question 45

Anthropological analysis of potlatching contradicts the classic economics assumption that individuals are, by nature, profit maximizers.

Question 46

The market principle dominates economic activities in band-level foraging societies.

Question 47

Potlatching is a form of competitive feasting that enables individuals to redistribute surplus materials while simultaneously increasing their own prestige.

Question 48

Is the contrast between horticulture and agriculture one of degree, or are they entirely separate practices? What is the difference between these two types of cultivation? Cite ethnographic evidence in your answer.

Question 49

In transhumant societies, the entire group moves with their animals throughout the year.

Question 50

Pastoralists are specialized herders whose subsistence strategies are focused on domesticated animals.

Question 51

Anthropologists often say that in nonindustrial societies, economic relationships are embedded in social relationships. What does this mean?

Question 52

Agriculturalists tend to live in permanent villages that are larger and closer to other settlements than the semipermanent settlements of horticulturalists.

Question 53

With balanced reciprocity, the giver expects something in return equal to what was given.

Question 54

With generalized reciprocity, the individuals participating in the exchange usually do not know the other person prior to the exchange.

Question 55

In most foraging societies, private ownership of bounded land was almost nonexistent.

Question 56

The high level of intensification and long-term dependability of horticulture paved the way for the emergence of large urban settlements and the first states.

Question 57

Band- and tribal-level societies actively promote craft and task specialization.

Question 58

We should not view contemporary foragers as isolated or pristine survivors of the Stone Age. Why? What is the evidence to suggest this?

Question 59

What are the basic differences and similarities between horticultural and foraging populations? Indicate reasons for the contrasts.

Question 60

In nonindustrial societies, economic activities are embedded in the society.

Question 61

How does economic anthropology differ from classical economics? In what ways can economic anthropology serve as a safeguard against ethnocentrism?

Question 62

How is a rent fund different from a subsistence fund? Cite examples to clarify your argument.

Question 63

What is industrial alienation? What kinds of activities are most likely to be associated with alienation? What activities in our own society are most alienating? Which are least so?

Question 64

Do people in all societies maximize material benefits? If not, what other things could be maximized to help explain their motives in everyday life? Do anthropologists believe that the profit maximization motive is a universal? What do you think? Explain your answer.