Deck 15: What Can Anthropology Tell Us About Social Inequality

Question 1

The deliberate representations of particular identities such as caste, race or nation as if they were the result of biology or nature, rather than history or culture are called

A) naturalizing discourses.
B) strategic essentialism.
C) transformist hegemony.
D) nation building.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

What term refers to a ranked group within a hierarchically stratified society whose membership is defined primarily in terms of wealth, occupation, or other economic criteria?

A) False consciousness
B) Clientage
C) Class
D) Caste

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Ranked groups within a hierarchically stratified society that are closed, prohibiting individuals to move from one rank to another is a

A) classes.
B) castes.
C) clientage.
D) ethnic groups.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Social groups that are distinguished from one another on the basis of cultural features such as language, religion, or dress are referred to as

A) castes.
B) classes.
C) ethnic groups.
D) races.

Question 5

When people live permanently in a setting in which they are surrounded by people with cultural backgrounds different from their own and are struggling to define with them the degree to which the cultural beliefs and practices should or should not be accorded respect and recognition, they are said to live in a

A) cosmopolitan society.
B) hybrid society.
C) multicultural society.
D) transnational society.

Question 6

According to Carla Jones, in 2009, the middle-income segment of Indonesia's population was

A) nonexistent.
B) about 19 percent.
C) 30 percent.
D) located only on the island of Bali.

Question 7

According to Didier Fassin, after the 1980s a new form of governmentality developed in the world, one that emphasized both the existence of a universal humanity and a universal affective movement drawing humans toward their fellows, which creates the obligation to provide assistance and attention to others. He calls this form of governmentality

A) human rights.
B) cosmopolitanism.
C) reciprocity.
D) humanitarianism.

Question 8

Stratification is does not depend at all upon culturally invented differences between groups of people.

Question 9

According to Carla Jones, middle-class status in Indonesia is

A) highly gendered.
B) defined solely in terms of income or money.
C) dependent on male consumption patterns.
D) false consciousness.

Question 10

According to Sara Dickey,

A) class status in India is an individual achievement.
B) class status is a consequence of choices made by the families of individuals, such that different siblings may belong to different classes.
C) Sending one's children to a government school is seen as a better investment than sending a child to a private school, because the education provided at a private school is seen as inferior to that provided in government schools.
D) Education alone can ensure that students will be able to acquire all the additional forms of social and cultural capital that might permit their movement to a higher social class.

Question 11

Anthropologists are suspicious of naturalizing discourses because they ignore historical evidence showing how present-day arrangements contrast with earlier social arrangements.

Question 12

If people are believed to have no choice but to follow the rules of the culture into which they were born, then they should be protected from interference by outsiders who do not share their cultural beliefs and practices.

Question 13

Compare and contrast "class" in Indonesia and the contemporary United States.

Question 14

Describe the similarities and differences between caste in India and discrimination against the Roma in Hungary. How do these examples compare and contrast with your home culture?

Question 15

Discuss the significance of descent in understanding dimensions of inequality in the contemporary world.

Question 16

Describe and provide evidence for the anthropological argument that race is a culturally constructed social category.

Question 17

Discuss how ethnicity develops in societies with a single political structure under conditions of inequality. How does the concept of "nesting identities" add to our understanding of ethnicity?

Question 18

What is the difference between a discourse of human rights and a discourse of humanitarianism?