Deck 5: The Cultural Construction of Identity

Question 1

Which New Guinea society is the kula ring part of?

A)the !Kung
B)the Trobrianders
C)the Kwakiutl
D)the Ju/'hoansi

Answer 1

the Trobrianders

Question 2

Which of the following statements best summarizes the findings of Margaret Mead concerning the nature versus nurture debate?

A)The experiences of adolescents varied depending on culture,but all societies recognize that women are better nurturers of children than men.
B)Gendered divisions of labour are the result of culture,and teenage girls in Samoan society were not following the same ideas of sexual morality found in the United States.
C)Gender roles and responsibilities are determined by biology for all societies but both men and women can be good nurturers of children.
D)Teen rebellion against parents is surprisingly universal throughout the world,but societies have very different ideas of what is,and is not,appropriate for men and women to do.

Answer 2

Gendered divisions of labour are the result of culture,and teenage girls in Samoan society were not following the same ideas of sexual morality found in the United States.

Question 3

Who receives the name at a potlatch?

A)the person who contributes the most wealth to the potlatch
B)the deceased
C)an animal spirit
D)the person who contributes the most spirit

Answer 3

the person who contributes the most wealth to the potlatch

Question 4

Which of these is NOT an outcome of enculturation in Canadian society?

A)singing the National Anthem at sporting events
B)the promotion hierarchies of Canadian-ness through hockey
C)learning a sociocentric view of identity through the media
D)graduating from a Canadian public school

Question 5

What is the term coined by Benedict Anderson to describe the concept that nations obtain a sense of shared identity despite having so many people that they cannot all possibly meet?

A)society of the individual
B)sociocratic community
C)autocratic society
D)imagined community

Question 6

What view of the person places a high value on individualism and self-reliance?

A)sociocentric
B)social identities
C)cultural identities
D)egocentric

Question 7

What principle characterizes Marcel Mauss's theory about gift-giving?

A)the principle of giving
B)the principle of receiving
C)the principle of bonding
D)the principle of reciprocity

Question 8

What does naming a child accomplish among the Umbundu in Angola?

A)The naming serves to perpetuate a wide kinship web.
B)The naming reinforces patriarchal rule.
C)The naming demonstrates the individuality of a son or daughter.
D)The naming serves to challenge the spirits of the earth.

Question 9

What does Keigo essentially do?

A)breaks down social barriers between speaker and listener
B)establishes the relative social standing of the speaker and listener
C)creates tensions between speaker and listener
D)creates cohesion between speaker and listener

Question 10

What concept is central to the vocabulary of the Japanese language?

A)status
B)gender
C)family relations
D)place of origin

Question 11

Why do Japanese advertisers frequently use clowns or children to make imperative commands like "Drink Coke" in advertisements?

A)because in Japanese society,people must be careful of the linguistic forms they use in conversation
B)because Japanese actors wish to avoid being associated with the promotion of products not made in Japan
C)because the Japanese take a sociocentric view of the self,and therefore must acknowledge the social usefulness of children and even clowns
D)because children and clowns are seen as the most innocent members of society and devoid of ulterior motives that would raise suspicions among consumers

Question 12

What is the best reason that anthropologists are often "adopted" by a family?

A)Anthropologists are "adopted" because families recognize that Westerners need someone to cook for them in unfamiliar places.
B)Anthropologists are "adopted" because the family is interested in gaining favours from them.
C)Anthropologists are "adopted" because families feel sorry for a person who does not have anyone to take care of them.
D)Anthropologists are "adopted" because being "adopted" assigns an outsider a social identity they would not have otherwise.

Question 13

Which of these is associated with a holistic sense of self?

A)seeing oneself as wholly responsible for one's own thoughts and actions
B)not seeing oneself as part of any established religion but having a personal spirituality
C)seeing oneself as a stable,autonomous entity
D)not seeing oneself as an entity distinct from one's social position or group

Question 14

Why does anthropologist David Gilmore believe that initiation rituals for males are more commonplace than those for females,and generally involve more arduous tests in most societies?

A)Men face greater physical challenges in life and need to be better prepared.
B)Females are less able to endure physical pain.
C)Men must make a greater effort to differentiate themselves from their mothers.
D)There is less need to mark the transition to womanhood because women do not take on public roles.

Question 15

What did young Muslim women in Canada report to Homa Hoodfar as the reason they wore the veil?

A)They were frequently forced by their parents to wear it.
B)They felt obligated to wear it because of Islamic patriarchal oppression.
C)It saved them from having to explain their behaviour.
D)They wanted to highlight their sexual and moral values.

Question 16

Which of the following is NOT a consequence of living in a society that valorizes the "gene" and links identities with nature?

A)a reduction of the diversity of human behaviours to biology
B)a discounting of the role of biology in shaping human behaviours
C)a discounting of the role of culture in shaping identities like race,gender,and sexuality
D)a discounting of the role of culture in the shaping of individual behaviour

Question 17

According to van Gennep,what kind of rituals marks a person's transition from one identity to another?

A)transformation events
B)religious conversion
C)rites of passage
D)social interventions

Question 18

What is the symbolic purpose of the potlatch?

A)to emphasize the cosmic bonds between the bride and the groom
B)to assert the spiritual powers of the host
C)to circulate kula items that represent peaceful relations
D)to publicly validate the social positions of each guest

Question 19

Where would be an appropriate place for the Japanese to distinguish themselves from others and develop their autonomy?

A)at a company meeting
B)together with others at outdoor celebrations
C)alone,by themselves
D)nowhere

Question 20

When the Ndembu boys who are being initiated into manhood stay in the forest to be circumcised,what stage of van Gennep's discussion of rites of passage are they in?

A)separation
B)transition
C)reintegration
D)isolation

Question 21

Which of the following is NOT an example of gift-giving and hospitality?

A)kula rings
B)potlatch feasts
C)the orikumba
D)a bartering ceremony

Question 22

Our identity is not natural or biological,but can be political and collective.

Question 23

What are the common traits that Bruce Miller found are used to define "indigenous" in different parts of the world?

A)They have lived exactly the same way since they were encountered by the colonizers and they have not adopted the style of dress of the colonizing culture.
B)They live in some clearly identifiable way that maintains their own distinct culture,and they have been living exactly the same way since they experienced colonization.
C)They live in some clearly identifiable way that maintains their own distinct culture and they continue to practice the same ways of hunting,gathering,or other traditional livelihoods.
D)They continue to practice the same ways of hunting,gathering,or other traditional livelihoods and they have not adopted the style of dress of the colonizing culture.

Question 24

Homa Hoodfar found that young Muslim Canadian women who wear a veil do so because their parents and religious leaders force them to do so.

Question 25

Which people have been in exile for over half a century and are also the largest refugee population in the world?

A)the Kurds
B)the Palestinians
C)the Papua New Guineans
D)the Somalis

Question 26

Which of the following is NOT a basis for determining who is a landowner or has rights to land among the Telefolmin?

A)someone who initially cleared a plot of land
B)someone who had a relative buried on a plot of land
C)someone who inherited land from maternal or paternal connections
D)someone who was granted permission to use a plot of land

Question 27

Feminists have established that due to biological and evolutionary reasons,women are better nurturers of children.

Question 28

Land and return are at the centre of Palestinian identity;what is keeping the memory alive a form of?

A)resistance
B)religious fervour
C)control by the elderly
D)linguistic differences

Question 29

What trend was demonstrated by the indigenous peoples in Ecuador studied by Kim Clark?

A)They have lost ground and been generally weakened as the state has modernized the Ecuadorian countryside.
B)Indigenous identity has rapidly strengthened following reduced social spending in the 1980s.
C)Colonialism and state control have led to a passive acceptance of the state's authoritarian paternalism.
D)Most indigenous people have been assimilated,leaving only a declining remnant of people identifying themselves as indigenous.

Question 30

Family membership,gender,and age are the characteristics of individuals used universally to differentiate and group people.

Question 31

Transition is the phase of a rite of passage that is most emphasized in marriage ceremonies because it marks the transfer of a person from one social group to another.

Question 32

The categorization of people on the social landscape occurs in order to simplify interactions.

Question 33

Which of these explains the true difference between gift-giving and commodity exchange?

A)Gift-giving is not an exchange process.
B)Commodities are never given as gifts.
C)Commodities cannot be transformed into a possession.
D)Gifts are inalienable while commodities are alienable.

Question 34

An example of enculturation would be the passing down through generations of a genetic susceptibility to a particular disease.

Question 35

Others take part in shaping our social identities and nobody is anybody except in relation to somebody.

Question 36

Western societies have an egocentric view of the self.

Question 37

Portuguese colonizers did NOT try to influence naming practices amongst the Umbundu in Angola.

Question 38

In relation to identity,what is Christmas and Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol celebrating?

A)the difference between being a greedy person and a giving person
B)the importance of family life as opposed to the world of work
C)the difference between being Christian and being from another religion
D)the importance of gift-giving to establishing one's personal identity

Question 39

What does the expanding role of indigenous organizations in Ecuador show the importance of?

A)social movements
B)personhood
C)identity
D)class

Question 40

One difference between sociocentric and egocentric views of the self is that the former values interdependence,and the latter values independence.

Question 41

The Telefolmin hope to gain geographic expression of their collective identity by having the Papua New Guinea government create a province that contains all Telefolmin descendants.

Question 42

The kula ring's principal function was to create a way for islanders to barter for food and other useful items not available on their own islands.

Question 43

Commodities differ from possessions in that commodities are generally alienated items.

Question 44

Christmas celebrations in Canada are a time when commodities are transformed into gifts.