Deck 4: The Process of Enculturation: Psychological and Cognitive Anthropology

Question 1

Instincts can be learned.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Culture allows humans to adjust to a wide range of physical environments.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Personality is affected by enculturation.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Human behavior can be entirely attributed to cultural factors.

Question 5

Psychological anthropologists tend to study people in their own societies.

Question 6

Personality is a combination of enculturation and biologically-based predispositions.

Question 7

Derek Freeman argued that Margaret Mead's research concerning adolescents in Samoa was flawed and led her to make erroneous conclusions.

Question 8

Most anthropologists agree that humans do not have closed instincts.

Question 9

Studies have shown that Japanese children are encouraged during childhood to lose their sense of individuality in favor of group identity.

Question 10

Freeman's research suggests biological influences play a significant role in adolescent behavior.

Question 11

According to Derek Freeman, most Samoans had puritanical views towards sexuality.

Question 12

According to the culture-and-personality theory, there is a correlation between personality and ethnicity.

Question 13

Recent research in new types of psychological anthropology shows that children are not passive recipients during enculturation.

Question 14

According to Mead, Samoan adolescents engaged freely in premarital sex.

Question 15

A basketball player's knowledge of where he or she is relative to the basket would be an example of instinct, as defined by anthropologists.

Question 16

Humans are animals.

Question 17

Ruth Benedict argued that cultures could not be classified according to specific "psychological types."

Question 18

A parrot's ability to speak like a human is an example of a closed instinct.

Question 19

Humans cannot ignore or override their basic, inborn drives.

Question 20

Franz Boas had a guiding influence on Margaret Mead.

Question 21

According to Piaget, humans demonstrate the ability to use symbols from the time they are born.

Question 22

Melford Spiro's research was strongly influenced by the theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.

Question 23

Psychological anthropologists differ from psychologists in that their research focuses on:

A) the behavior of social deviants
B) physiological characteristics of the human brain
C) cross-cultural similarities and differences
D) individuals in their own societies

Question 24

Human needs for food and sex are:

A) drives
B) instincts
C) obsessions
D) learned behavior

Question 25

Patterns of human sexuality are strongly influenced by culture.

Question 26

Nests built in a particular shape by a single species of bird are examples of:

A) material culture
B) cultural adaptation
C) instinctual behavior
D) learned behavior

Question 27

There are some human societies where homosexuality is considered normal behavior.

Question 28

An example of one way in which humans can make decisions to ignore or override basic needs would be:

A) telling a lie
B) abstaining from sex
C) running a marathon
D) sleeping late

Question 29

The process by which an individual learns how to behave within a particular society is known as:

A) cognition
B) cultural relativism
C) cultural adaptation
D) enculturation

Question 30

The Egyptians, Hawaiians, and Incas practiced brother-sister marriages in the royal line for generations without any harmful, long-term genetic consequences.

Question 31

Fixed, complex, genetically based, unlearned behaviors are referred to as:

A) phobias
B) instincts
C) habits
D) cultures

Question 32

The childhood familiarity hypothesis proposes that children raised together are more likely to become sexually involved as adults.

Question 33

Children can be active agents in the enculturation of their siblings and parents.

Question 34

Most anthropologists have come to agree that human behavior __________.

A) is mostly determined by genetic inheritance
B) is usually automatic and instinctual
C) results from learning only
D) results from a combination of biology and culture

Question 35

Inbreeding results in the creation of harmful genes.

Question 36

Humans are considered to have no closed instincts because they:

A) react automatically to loud noises
B) cannot avoid instinctual behavior
C) learn new behaviors easily
D) are always looking for new experiences

Question 37

Individualism is valued differently in different cultures.

Question 38

Incest avoidance is a universal practice among all known human societies.

Question 39

Evolutionary psychologists emphasize innate human predispositions.
Multiple Choice Questions

Question 40

According to Francis Hsu, the individual in China is strongly encouraged to reject familistic and group norms.

Question 41

The field of structural anthropology, founded by Lévi-Strauss, has, as one of its basic premises, the notion that there is a "deep universal structure" to cultural phenomena. According to Lévi-Strauss, this structure is characterized by:

A) thought in images and symbols, completely divorced from language
B) cognitive patterns that reflect hierarchical social relations
C) the development of consciousness through personal revelations
D) reasoning based on the construction of pairs of opposites (binary contrasts)

Question 42

According to psychologist Jean Piaget, the "preoperational stage" - corresponding roughly to ages 2 through 7 - is characterized by:

A) experience of the world only through physical contact
B) the use of logic to connect events in terms of cause and effect
C) the ability to distinguish between fantasy and objective reality
D) the use of reasoning processes and abstract symbols to understand the world

Question 43

One of the principal criticisms of the culture-and-personality school is that:

A) there is no evidence for a biological link between culture and personality
B) it tends to assume greater uniformity in personality than actually exists in society
C) the investigation of personality should be done by psychologists, not anthropologists
D) individual behavior is more important than the behavior of a whole society

Question 44

Anthropologists have discovered that children raised together in Israeli kibbutzim:

A) will usually have successful marriages to one another as adults
B) make lousy marriage partners for one another
C) have a natural tendency towards homosexuality
D) tend to have little appreciation for nuclear families

Question 45

After spending nine months in Samoa and working with individuals in three different villages, Margaret Mead concluded that:

A) Samoan society differed little from that of the U.S. in the 1920s
B) many key elements of Samoan culture had diffused from Thailand
C) Franz Boas' theories of cultural relativism had serious flaws
D) becoming an adult was less stressful in Samoa than in the U.S.

Question 46

The term berdache is used to refer to men in Native American societies who:

A) assert their personal power through public displays of heterosexual prowess
B) choose to abstain from sex so they can focus on spiritual growth
C) wear female clothing and offer sexual services to male warriors
D) participate in homosexual activity only when they are preparing for war

Question 47

Cross-cultural studies of human sexual desire have revealed that:

A) in all cultures, adults seek to engage in regular sexual activity
B) sexual desire and sexual activity are strongly conditioned by cultural practices
C) there are universal taboos against premarital sex
D) human sexual desire is greatest among people who live in the tropics

Question 48

The classification of foods into categories of kosher (edible) and traif (not edible) is an example of:

A) preoperational reasoning
B) cognitive dissonance
C) binary opposition
D) ethnocentric enculturation

Question 49

Claude Lévi-Strauss, in a book entitled The Savage Mind (1966), proposed that:

A) people in small-scale societies have different thought patterns than urban dwellers
B) it is impossible to compare logical systems of primitive and civilized societies
C) there is a universal, logical structure to all human cognition, regardless of culture
D) the thought systems of traditional, indigenous people are superior to our own

Question 50

Margaret Mead got most of her information on the behavior of adolescents in Samoa from:

A) accounts of travelers and missionaries
B) newspaper accounts and government reports
C) watching ethnographic films
D) interviewing young women

Question 51

Functionalist anthropologists have suggested that incest taboos originated in order to:

A) encourage alliances and cooperation between descent groups
B) avoid the serious consequences of genetic interbreeding
C) strengthen the role of patrilineal descent groups
D) regulate and limit sexual behavior within small communities

Question 52

Research on the "childhood familiarity hypothesis" supports the notion that:

A) unrelated children raised together make good marriage partners
B) children who have grown up in the same household share sexual attractions
C) children living in close association with one another develop mutual sexual aversion
D) unrelated adolescents who live together are likely to become erotically involved

Question 53

In her classic work Patterns of Culture (1934), Ruth Benedict used the terms "Apollonian" and "Dionysian" to describe:

A) cultural "personalities" of Pueblo and Plains Indians
B) religious cults of northern and southern Greece
C) rituals of warfare and celebration in the South Pacific
D) contrasting models of cultural diffusion

Question 54

In Malaysia, Indonesia, and parts of the Philippines there is a psychological disorder characterized by: 1) a period of brooding over a perceived insult, 2) wild, aggressive, and random acts of rage and violence, and 3) prolonged exhaustion and amnesia. This culture-specific condition is known as:

A) windigo
B) pibloktoq
C) amok
D) echolalia

Question 55

The human capacity for culture is:

A) learned after birth
B) genetically programmed
C) weaker than for instinctual behavior
D) severely limited

Question 56

The use of government legislation to prohibit or limit homosexual behavior is a practice that:

A) has been universally adopted by civilized nations of both the East and West
B) reflects cross-cultural values shared by human societies worldwide
C) is still common in the U.S. despite its abandonment by other Western nations
D) is justified on the basis of scientific evidence for social degeneration

Question 57

The central object of Mead's study, Coming of Age in Samoa (1928), was to determine whether or not:

A) kinship patterns in Samoa could be attributed to diffusion from China
B) the events of World War II had an effect on traditional family structure in Samoa
C) the transition from adolescence into adulthood was stressful in all societies
D) maturation rates of Samoan teenagers were directly related to race and heredity

Question 58

The hijras of India are anatomically male at the time of their birth. However, after having their genitals surgically removed, they dress like females and engage in certain male-only activities like smoking water pipes. In Indian society, they are considered to be:

A) social deviants
B) men
C) women
D) a third gender

Question 59

Most modern anthropologists are of the opinion that individual human behavior is:

A) influenced more strongly by cultural than by hereditary factors
B) controlled primarily by inherited characteristics in the structure of the brain
C) completely a product of learning and culture, with no genetic influence
D) the product of both biological and cultural factors

Question 60

Value judgments concerning homosexuality are based on:

A) genetics
B) behavior
C) anatomy
D) culture

Question 61

How are children in Japan raised differently from those in the United States? What effect, if any, does this have on the personality of individuals raised in Japan?

Question 62

Ruth Benedict characterized various Native American cultures as "Apollonian" or "Dionysian." Can these categories be used to classify other cultures (or subcultures) with which you are familiar? Discuss why or why not and illustrate your answer with specific examples.

Question 63

Are there differences between Eastern and Western societies with regard to the ways individuals perceive themselves relative to society? What is the evidence for your interpretation?

Question 64

What are some of the ways in which decisions influenced by one's culture can regularly override basic human drives to: 1) eat, 2) sleep, and 3) have sex?

Question 65

A condition known as "Arctic hysteria" is most common during:

A) long summer months when mosquitoes are most numerous
B) cold, dark winter months in small communities
C) periodic epidemics, when child mortality is high
D) long-distance canoe treks in search of game

Question 66

Apart from illegality, what are some of the reasons why people avoid participating in incestuous relationships?

Question 67

Define Freud's concepts of the id, ego, and superego. Do you agree with his ideas about unconscious human thought? Why or why not?

Question 68

Based on your own experience of different ethnic groups, do you agree with the theory that there are specific personality types that are common in certain cul?tures? Discuss the reasons why you agree or disagree.

Question 69

Do you agree with the theory that humans do not have closed instincts? Why or why not?

Question 70

Psychological anthropologists take it for granted that:

A) all humans think alike and share the same emotions
B) no two cultures are similar in the way they perceive the world
C) emotional functioning can vary widely in different cultures
D) psychological conditions are primarily organic in nature Essay Questions

Question 71

The "windigo psychosis" is characterized by:

A) an insatiable craving for human flesh
B) uncontrollable, random violence
C) wild screaming of obscenities
D) obsessive eating and regurgitation

Question 72

What are some of the most important methods of enculturation used in your own society? Give an example of how your own personality has been affected by enculturation.

Question 73

Anthropologist Melford Spiro uses a neo-Freudian approach to understanding human behavior. What conclusions has he drawn from his research?

Question 74

Describe a pattern of behavior that you consider to be "normal" for your culture but that another culture would probably identify as "abnormal."

Question 75

What were the principal issues in Derek Freeman's critique of Margaret Mead's research on Samoa?

Question 76

Discuss the meaning of ade for children in Papua New Guinea. How can we interpret this pattern of behavior?