Deck 5: The Development of Anthropological Thought

Question 1

Although the text uses the term "Other" to refer to the non-Western peoples anthropology used to focus on, the term is problematic because

A) it is not easily understood by non-anthropologists.
B) it is not a very convenient shorthand to use.
C) using the term is ethnocentric.
D) the concept of "Other" is based on cultural relativism.

Answer 1

using the term is ethnocentric.

Question 2

A scientific approach within anthropology that emphasizes the ways in which humans are similar to other animals is called

A) cultural materialism.
B) cultural ecology.
C) evolutionary psychology.
D) biological functionalism.

Answer 2

evolutionary psychology.

Question 3

According to materialists,

A) each culture is a unique product of its own historical and environmental circumstances.
B) human behavior, including cultural practices, is motivated by the principle of survival of the fittest.
C) all parts of a culture are integrated in a way so that to understand any part we must understand the other parts as well.
D) how people make a living is the most important influence on all other aspects of culture.

Answer 3

how people make a living is the most important influence on all other aspects of culture.

Question 4

Interpretive anthropologists emphasize the ____ dimensions of culture.

A) material
B) symbolic
C) environmental
D) theoretical

Question 5

Which of these events led to the emergence of anthropology as an academic discipline?
I. The discovery of stone tools and humanlike skeletal remains
II. Geological evidence that the world is millions of years old
III. The theory of a natural process for the development of new species

A) I and II
B) II and III
C) I and III
D) I, II, and III

Question 6

According to the theory proposed by Charles Darwin,

A) one or more species emerged out of another over a long period of transformation.
B) monkeys and apes are the ancestors of modern humans.
C) the earth is actually millions of years old.
D) cultural progress is determined by survival of the fittest.

Question 7

The anthropologists of the nineteenth century believed that cultures transformed over time into more complex and superior cultures. This type of thinking is called

A) materialism.
B) unilineal evolutionism.
C) functionalism.
D) particularism.

Question 8

According to the unilineal evolutionists, the non-Western cultures being documented in the nineteenth century were

A) the products of unique historical events and human interactions.
B) as civilized as those of Western Europe.
C) examples of an earlier stage of cultural evolution.
D) anomalies that were impossible to explain.

Question 9

The scholars who are considered the first true cultural anthropologists were

A) unilineal evolutionists.
B) those who conducted their own fieldwork.
C) humanistic anthropologists.
D) creationists.

Question 10

The theory of unilineal evolution did each of the following EXCEPT

A) develop from Darwin's ideas on natural selection.
B) state that different peoples represent different stages of evolutionary development.
C) define the evolutionary stages of savagery, barbarism, and civilization.
D) promote the importance of fieldwork in cultural anthropology.

Question 11

In Primitive Culture, E. B. Tylor argued that religion developed through three stages that he identified as

A) cults, Christianity, and evolution.
B) animism, polytheism, and monotheism.
C) superstition, religion, and science.
D) unilineal evolution, historical particularism, and materialism.

Question 12

Who is considered the father of American anthropology?

A) E.B. Tylor
B) Charles Darwin
C) Franz Boas
D) Lewis Henry Morgan

Question 13

From the perspective of ____, every culture is a unique product of its own historical events and circumstances.

A) historical materialism
B) functional structuralism
C) historical particularism
D) unilineal evolutionism

Question 14

Historical particularism was championed by which of these early anthropologists?

A) Bronislaw Malinowski
B) Franz Boas
C) Edward B. Tylor
D) Lewis Henry Morgan

Question 15

Which of these is NOT a criticism made by Boas (and others) of the unilineal evolutionists?

A) They ignored the importance of Biblical understandings of culture.
B) They were ethnocentric.
C) There does not seem to be a single line of cultural development.
D) The evolutionists were armchair anthropologists who did not collect their own data.

Question 16

Franz Boas believed that anthropologists should

A) develop theories using the written reports of missionaries, in particular.
B) avoid living with the people they study so as not to influence them.
C) gather more factual information about other cultures by conducting fieldwork.
D) attempt to classify cultural development in stages.

Question 17

Each of these is a contribution of Franz Boas to the field of anthropology EXCEPT

A) the emphasis on conducting firsthand fieldwork.
B) the importance of cultural relativism.
C) evidence that biological differences and cultural differences are independent of each other.
D) the discovery of general principles that affect all cultures.

Question 18

Which of these anthropologists first popularized cultural relativism as an important methodological principle?

A) Margaret Mead
B) Marvin Harris
C) Franz Boas
D) Bronislaw Malinowski

Question 19

Which of these works is an example of the anthropological approach of configurationalism?

A) Margaret Mead's Coming of Age in Samoa
B) E.B. Tylor's Primitive Culture
C) Ruth Benedict's Patterns of Culture
D) Bronislaw Malinowski's Argonauts of the Western Pacific

Question 20

Ruth Benedict used the term ____ to describe what she considered the cultural excess of the Kwakiutl of the Northwest Coast.

A) Apollonian
B) Dionysian
C) Athenia
D) Bacchanalian

Question 21

The primary criticism of configurationalism as applied by Benedict is that it

A) ignores the ways in which cultures are similar.
B) has a tendency to glorify the negative aspects of culture.
C) overemphasizes the effect of culture on personality.
D) is overly unilineal in its orientation.

Question 22

The primary criticism of historical particularism is that it

A) overlooks the ways in which cultures are similar.
B) has a tendency to glorify the negative aspects of culture.
C) oversimplifies cultural traits and leads to stereotyping.
D) focuses too much on trying to explain factors that contribute to cultural similarities.

Question 23

____ explains cultural features by the benefits they provide to individuals and groups.

A) Historical particularism
B) Configurationalism
C) Cultural evolutionism
D) Functionalism

Question 24

A significant problem with the focus on meeting individual needs in the perspective of Bronislaw Malinowski is that
I. human needs vary from place to place and time to time.
II. not all members of a culture have their needs met to the same degree.
III. an emphasis on meeting individual needs does little to explain culture.

A) I and II
B) I and III
C) II and III
D) I, II, and III

Question 25

British functionalist Malinowski emphasized ____ needs, while Radcliffe-Brown emphasized the needs of ____.

A) societal; individuals
B) individual; society
C) cultural; human biology
D) biological; culture

Question 26

What is the contribution of British functionalism to the field of anthropology?

A) An emphasis on cultural relativism and distinctiveness
B) The importance of viewing societies as living organisms
C) The value of understanding cultural change
D) An emphasis on the relationships among groups and cultural integration

Question 27

Which of these has become a major issue within the development of a global anthropology?

A) Objective science
B) Neoevolutionism
C) Monotheism
D) Representation

Question 28

The neoevolutionist Leslie White

A) thought that technological changes caused changes in many areas of culture.
B) thought that the most aggressive cultures survived while the others went extinct.
C) was also a British functionalist who emphasized meeting the needs of individuals in a culture.
D) coined the term "culture core" to explain the Trobriand Islanders.

Question 29

Neoevolutionist Leslie White defined cultural evolution to mean that technology

A) had a greater capacity to inflict harm on groups of people.
B) had an increased likelihood of causing environmental degradation.
C) was able to harness a greater amount of energy per person per year.
D) was increasingly complex in its components and the skill needed to run it.

Question 30

The work of neoevolutionist Julian Steward gave rise to the modern field of

A) sociology.
B) ecological anthropology.
C) material culture studies.
D) biological anthropology.

Question 31

Unilineal evolutionists are generally considered the first true cultural anthropologists.

Question 32

E. B. Tylor thought that polytheism was the earliest form of religion.

Question 33

Boas used the term relativism to account for why some cultures were better than others.

Question 34

Cultural relativism is an important methodological principle in order to ensure accurate understanding of another culture.

Question 35

Contemporary anthropologists tend to agree that human societies are very much like any living organism in terms of how the parts function together.

Question 36

The theories and methods of the neoevolutionists mirror those of the 19th century evolutionists.

Question 37

Postmodernists generally believe that the methods and assumptions of all science are culture-bound and that, as a result, the theories and facts of science cannot be objective.

Question 38

Humanistic anthropologists are interested in questions such as what causes cultural similarities and differences.

Question 39

From the perspective of evolutionary psychology, we are more likely to assist people we are related to than people we do not know.

Question 40

Sociobiologists argue that warfare, male unfaithfulness to wives, and xenophobia are natural predispositions in human beings.

Question 41

Materialists agree with the neoevolutionary perspective that increased energy captured by improvements in technology has generally made human life better.

Question 42

Some materialists believe that population growth and intensification lead to new technologies and eventually new world views.

Question 43

Humanistic anthropologists believe that the science of culture should include general theories of the development of religion, art, and other expressive culture.

Question 44

Disagreements in theoretical frameworks occur in the study of anthropology because the study of humans as a science can bring conflicting results.

Question 45

Humans are self-conscious and self-aware beings who respond to anthropologists who study various communities; thus, agreeing on one particular theory, method, or approach is nearly impossible for all anthropologists to employ in the field.

Question 46

Discuss the approach of the unilineal evolutionists. How did they contribute to the field of anthropology? What aspects of their approach have been rejected, and why?

Question 47

What was the approach of American historical particularism? How did it contribute to the field of anthropology? What were its limitations?

Question 48

Compare how British functionalists Bronislaw Malinowski and A. R. Radcliffe-Brown explained culture. What are the limitations of each of their approaches?

Question 49

Give three examples of how sociobiology or evolutionary psychology explains human cultures.

Question 50

Describe the scientific and humanistic approaches to the understanding of different cultures. How do they differ? What are the limitations of each approach?