Deck 11: Reconstructing Social And Political Systems Of The Past

Question 1

If a biological father has little to do with his biological offspring, and instead spends most of his time with his sister's children who call him by a term meaning "father" rather than "uncle," the descent system of these people is most likely:

A) patrilineal.
B) matrilineal.
C) bilateral.
D) Any or all of the answers are correct.

Answer 1

matrilineal.

Question 2

William Webb (1882-1964) excavated hundreds of burials at the Indian Knoll site in western Kentucky. How did Webb explain the presence of hunting weapons in the graves of women and children at the site?

A) Women and children hunted in life; they were therefore interred with the objects they would need in the afterlife.
B) Burial ritual; the artifacts were symbols of grief rather than objects that the interred used during life because women and children would not have hunted.
C) Misinterpretation of the archaeological evidence; the "hunting weapons" were not hunting weapons at all, but rather tools used to process plants.
D) All of the answers are correct; his interpretations of the site changed through time.

Answer 2

Burial ritual; the artifacts were symbols of grief rather than objects that the interred used during life because women and children would not have hunted.

Question 3

Roughly what percent of professional archaeologists today are women?

A) 2%
B) 10%
C) 25%
D) 50%

Answer 3

50%

Question 4

A social system in which positions of status are limited, and thus where not everyone of talent may achieve high status or prestige is called a(n):

A) ranked society.
B) egalitarian society.
C) nonresidential group.
D) residential group.

Question 5

Ethnographic data from a variety of societies around the world has shown which of the following about men's and women's roles in ceramic manufacture?

A) When pottery is made by hand, it is usually made by women; when pottery is made on a wheel, it is usually made by men.
B) When pottery is made by hand, it is usually made by men; when pottery is made on a wheel, it is usually made by women.
C) When pottery is made on a wheel, men and women participate equally in the manufacturing process; women dominate the manufacturing process when pottery is made by hand.
D) When pottery is made by hand, men and women participate equally in the manufacturing process; women dominate the manufacturing process when pottery is made on a wheel.

Question 6

If you live in a society in which two or more local groups are organized under a single highly ranked individual, you live in a(n):

A) egalitarian society.
B) patrilineal society.
C) chiefdom.
D) Any or all of the answers are correct.

Question 7

Margaret Conkey and Janet Spector pointed out which of the following biases in archaeology?

A) The fact that plant remains are rarely preserved at archaeological sites while animal bones and stone tools are often abundant, leading archaeologists to overestimate the importance of meat in prehistoric diets.
B) The fact that when archaeologists only study projectile points and ignore associated debitage, or debris, from the manufacture of stone tools, they end up with a biased view of prehistoric technological organization.
C) The fact that archaeologists tend to impose the current political organization of their culture onto prehistoric political organizations without sufficient data to justify their inferences.
D) The fact that archaeologists once viewed the world largely in terms of men's activities and perceptions, while the contributions of women were downplayed; this view was projected into prehistory, resulting in a strong androcentric bias in archaeology.

Question 8

Schillaci and Stojanowski (University of New Mexico) argue from their analysis of the Pueblo Bonito burial population that the people of Pueblo Bonito practiced bilocal rather than matrilocal residence because:

A) ethnographic analogy suggests that the presence of prestigious grave goods accompanying both male and female skeletons at Pueblo Bonito is characteristic of bilocal residence patterns.
B) mitochondrial DNA studies showed that males were more closely biologically related than females.
C) analysis of cranial traits showed that the male sample possessed greater variation than the female sample, a pattern not expected within a matrilocal residence pattern.
D) analysis of cranial traits showed that the female sample possessed greater variation than the male sample, a pattern not expected within a matrilocal residence pattern; bilocal residence was also common among the eastern pueblos at the time of European contact.

Question 9

Clusters of residences among the Mikea people in Madagascar reflect:

A) matrilineal descent groups, with clusters of families consisting of older women, sisters, and their husbands.
B) patrilineal descent groups, with clusters of families consisting of older men, brothers, and their wives.
C) a mixture of descent groups, with an equal chance of members belonging to a patrilineage or a matrilineage.
D) status differences, with groups at the north end of a settlement having higher status than those at the south end.

Question 10

Why has Peter Peregrine (Lawrence University) suggested that Chacoan pueblo society practiced matrilocal residence?

A) The small size of Chacoan pueblos (<60 square meters) lies within the size limits of ethnographically documented matrilocal residences.
B) The side-by-side spatial arrangement of pueblo rooms reflects social solidarity, which ethnographic data suggest is characteristic of matrilocal residence.
C) Bioarchaeological analysis of Chacoan burial populations has shown that females are more genetically similar to each other than are males; this means that females stayed in their village of origin while males migrated from elsewhere.
D) All of the answers are correct.

Question 11

The primary method for reconstructing male and female activities from the archaeological record comes from:

A) ceramic analysis.
B) lithic (including groundstone) analysis.
C) ethnographic analogy.
D) gender ideology.

Question 12

The standard kinship system in North America as well as in many other industrialized nations is:

A) patrilineal descent.
B) matrilineal descent.
C) bilateral descent.
D) mostly patrilineal descent, with an almost equal amount of bilateral descent.

Question 13

Anthropologists refer to the rules and structures that govern relations within a group of interacting people as:

A) residence patterns.
B) social organization.
C) residence rules
D) kinship systems.

Question 14

Berdaches were:

A) recognized by their cultural group as a third gender.
B) men who chose to live as women, performing women's traditional roles.
C) also known as "two-spirits" in some Plains Indian societies.
D) All of the answers are correct.

Question 15

The socially recognized network of relationships through which individuals are related to one another by ties of descent (real or imagined) and marriage is called:

A) a moiety.
B) a lineage.
C) kinship.
D) bilateral descent.

Question 16

With patrilocal residence, commonly associated with patrilineal descent a newly married couple lives in the:

A) groom's village of origin.
B) groom's mother's village of origin.
C) bride's village of origin.
D) bride's father's village of origin.

Question 17

A set of lineages that claims to share a distant, often-mythical ancestor is called a:

A) moiety.
B) clan.
C) kinship system.
D) berdache.

Question 18

Political organization can be defined as:

A) the culturally prescribed behavior associated with men and women which can vary from society to society.
B) the rules and structures that govern relations within a group of interacting people.
C) a society's formal and informal institutions that regulate a population's collective acts.
D) a network of relationships through which individuals are related to one another by ties of descent.

Question 19

The difference between gender roles and gender ideologies is:

A) gender roles are the culturally prescribed behaviors associated with men and women, while gender ideologies are the culturally prescribed values assigned to the tasks and status of men and women.
B) gender roles are highly variable among cultures, while gender ideologies are constant among all cultures.
C) gender roles are constant among all cultures, while gender ideologies are highly variable.
D) None of the answers; the terms are interchangeable.

Question 20

The argument that females depicted in Classic Maya stelae occupied similar and complimentary roles to those of males, and that these Maya stelae depict a prehistoric cargo system, is based on:

A) translation of Maya hieroglyphics that describe the operation of cargo systems.
B) historically linked ethnographic analogy.
C) oral tradition; although Maya today do not participate in cargo systems, a record of their past participation has been preserved through storytelling.
D) All of the answers are correct.

Question 21

Petrographic analysis involves:

A) shooting an x-ray beam onto lithic raw material causing the electrons to become excited and emit fluorescent energy.
B) trace element analysis of lithic raw material to obtain a "fingerprint" and identify source.
C) identifying the mineral composition of a pot's temper and clay through microscopic analysis of thin sections of the pottery.
D) All of the answers are correct; petrographic analysis refers to all techniques that attempt to source ceramic or lithic raw material.

Question 22

Members of the Tahitian villages were organized into competing chiefdoms ruled by a "sacred chief." Below the "sacred chiefs" were

A) other "sacred chiefs."
B) small chiefs.
C) sub-chiefs.
D) the "sacred chief" was the only ruling chief.

Question 23

Which of the following sourcing studies are not used to demonstrate the geographic scale of an economic and/or political organization?

A) Obsidian
B) Clay
C) Temper
D) Soil

Question 24

That material culture reflects symbolic meanings as well as functional behaviors makes

A) archaeological patterning easy to understand.
B) archeological patterning difficult to understand.
C) it impossible infer ancient social and political organization from artifacts.
D) it easy to tell if objects are best interpreted in terms of their symbolic or functional meanings.

Question 25

Anthropologists distinguish between gender and sex. Sex refers to

A) culturally constructed ideas about sex differences.
B) the human capability to reproduce.
C) inherited biological differences between males and females.
D) biological differences that are not inherited.

Question 26

We know much about what Maya hieroglyphs mean because

A) Maya left written explanations.
B) Maya epigraphers can read the hieroglyphs.
C) Maya hieroglyphs are exactly the same as Egyptian hieroglyphs.
D) we do not confuse hieroglyphs with art.

Question 27

The socially recognized network of relationships through which individuals are related to one another by ties of descent (real or imagined) and marriage is known as

A) family ties.
B) descent.
C) kinship.
D) hierarchy.

Question 28

Archaeologists know that the pottery wheel is associated with

A) the horse drawn cart.
B) craft specialization.
C) marketing of pottery.
D) craft specializations and marketing of pottery.

Question 29

Analyses of burial populations from Mississippian sites indicate:

A) clear status differences among men and women, as well as among classes, reflected by types and abundance of grave goods.
B) that men ate more meat than women, and that high status men ate more meat than low status men.
C) that although the elite had access to resources that low status individuals did not, the quality of life of low status individuals did not appear negatively affected.
D) All of the answers are correct.

Question 30

The current sourcing method used to fingerprint obsidian, and used by Richard Hughes to verify James Griffin's determination that obsidian in the Ohio Hopewell mounds had come from Obsidian Cliff in Yellowstone National Park some 2400 kilometers away is:

A) instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA).
B) petrographic analysis.
C) microscopic observation of thin sections.
D) x-ray fluorescence (XRF).

Question 31

In the reconstruction of social and political organizations archaeologists remember

A) artifacts were merely utilitarian items.
B) artifacts carried no social meanings.
C) artifacts carried symbolic meanings that reflect elements of social and political organization.
D) it is not necessary to have well-supported ethnographic analogy.

Question 32

By assuming that the treatment of people in death reflects their status and roles in life, the data from more than 3000 burials at Moundville indicates that:

A) Moundville society was egalitarian.
B) Moundville society was ranked, most likely a chiefdom.
C) house structures as well as burials were unrelated to the status of people at Moundville.
D) Moundville society was matrilineal; females were buried with many more grave goods than males.

Question 33

If a person goes to the natural source area of a raw material and either extracts the material him- or herself or trades for it or for finished products, he or she is engaging in:

A) direct acquisition.
B) down-the-line trade.
C) raw material sourcing.
D) the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex.

Question 34

A technique used to determine the source of pottery by identifying the trace element composition of the clay or temper used to manufacture the pot is:

A) petrographic analysis.
B) instrumental neutron activation analysis.
C) energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence.
D) Any or all of the answers are correct.

Question 35

The cultural tradition that is found primarily in the Ohio River Valley and its tributaries dating between 200 BC and AD 400, that constructed geometric earthworks and effigy mounds, and that is known for its elaborate mortuary rituals is:

A) Mississippian.
B) Moundville.
C) Hopewell.
D) Southeastern Ceremonial Complex.

Question 36

Petrographic and instrumental neutron activation analysis conducted on Micronesian pottery determined which of the following?

A) Pottery found on the atolls was all manufactured on the high island of Yap, confirming an ancient trade network between Yap and outlying atolls.
B) Pottery found on the atolls was all manufactured locally; each atoll had its own source of high quality clay from which ceramic vessels were manufactured.
C) Although the clay used to manufacture most of the pottery came from the high island of Yap, the actual manufacture of pottery took place on the atolls.
D) It was impossible to determine the particular high island that was the source of the clay used to manufacture Micronesian pottery because the islands have such similar geologic histories.

Question 37

The name of the cultural tradition that was widespread across much of the eastern United States from AD 800- 1500, engaged in intensive village-based maize horticulture, and constructed earthen platform mounds is:

A) Mississippian.
B) Southeastern Ceremonial Complex.
C) Moundville.
D) All of the answers are correct.

Question 38

The differential participation of males and females in the various social, economic, political, and religious institutions of a group is termed

A) gender ideology.
B) berdaches.
C) gender role.
D) sexual dichotomy.

Question 39

Physical, face to face associations of people are referred to by archeologists as

A) non-residential groups.
B) residential groups.
C) residences.
D) non-residences.

Question 40

An egalitarian society:

A) is a society in which people generally have equal access to critical, life-sustaining resources.
B) contains roughly as many valued positions as there are persons capable of filling them.
C) recognizes status on the basis of gender and age.
D) All of the answers are correct.

Question 41

In general, bilateral descent is associated with industrialized nations; patrilineal descent is associated with a wide range of conditions such as hunting and gathering, agriculture, and pastoralism, as well as internal warfare; and matrilineal descent is associated with horticulture, long distance hunting, and warfare with distant enemies.

Question 42

Kinship systems describe relationships based solely on biological descent.

Question 43

In order to infer ancient social and political organization, it is important to remember that material culture reflects symbolic meaning as well as functional behaviors.

Question 44

In anthropology, the terms "gender" and "sex" are used interchangeably.

Question 45

Ethnographic analysis makes it clear that it is safe to assume that women in the past always made the pottery, and men always made the stone tools.

Question 46

Matrilineal societies are extremely common, making up roughly 75% of the world's societies today; archaeologists also believe they were very common in the past.

Question 47

If you call your father's brother's offspring "brother" and "sister" instead of "cousin", and you call your mother's sister's offspring "cousin", you most likely belong to a matrilineage.

Question 48

Ethnographic data indicate that when pottery production moves from manufacture for the residential group to manufacture for the nonresidential group, the task of pottery production shifts from women to men.

Question 49

Because different volcanic flows contain identical amounts of trace elements, it is nearly impossible to source obsidian using methods that rely on trace element analysis.

Question 50

Archeologists think in terms of only residential groups, excluding non residential groups.

Question 51

Status refers to the rights, duties, and privileges that define the nature of interpersonal relations.

Question 52

The purpose of adding temper to clay is to prevent cracking and improve the strength of the ceramic item.