Deck 1: Culture and Meaning

Question 1

What does ethnography represent?

A)description and analysis of anthropological fieldwork.
B)analysis using the comparative method
C)a survey summary
D)an ethnocentric interpretation

Answer 1

description and analysis of anthropological fieldwork.

Question 2

Why is ethnocentrism academically challenging for socio-cultural anthropologists?

A)It creates unbiased understanding.
B)It impedes intercultural understanding.
C)It creates uneven social hierarchies.
D)It creates unbiased representation.

Answer 2

It impedes intercultural understanding.

Question 3

While doing fieldwork in Turkey,you heard numerous informants talk about the importance of virginity testing,where the hymeneal blood stain is displayed for people to see the morning after a wedding.What metaphor combo do they use to explain their cultural reasoning of this ritual practice?

A)war and conquest
B)love and sacrifice
C)dominance and control
D)seed and soil

Answer 3

seed and soil

Question 4

Members of the same society share a culture;what effect does this have?

A)They view the world in a similar way.
B)They view the world in differing ways.
C)They become increasingly xenophobic.
D)They become aware of their cultural views of the world.

Question 5

What ability should an anthropologist strive to hone by using the ethnographic method,participant observation,and cross-cultural comparison?

A)the ability to prove one's own view of the world
B)the ability to question the beliefs of the culture being studied
C)the ability to modernize the culture being studied
D)the ability to question one's own view of the world

Question 6

What research method is being used when an anthropologist lives among the people of the culture being studied and engages in the practices of their everyday life?

A)objective engagement
B)impartial observation
C)inductive survey
D)participant observation

Question 7

Which of the following options best describes why people from different societies understand and interpret similar life events in different ways?

A)They culturally ascribe different meanings to the experience.
B)Biological differences affect brain development.
C)They come from different geographical regions.
D)People are individualistic in their assigning of meaning.

Question 8

While initially seeking to experience and interpret the lives of those they are researching and participating with,what else do most anthropologists experience?

A)validation of their own beliefs
B)questioning of their own beliefs
C)generalized apathy
D)sustained empathy

Question 9

Unlike in anthropology,where the researchers are concerned about the issue of representation,in the mass media there is still a tendency to represent particular cultural groups as homogeneous.What is the term for this kind of uncritical stereotyping?

A)essentialism
B)journalism
C)moralism
D)passivism

Question 10

Which fallacy is it when people hold the notion that their own culture's beliefs are right,and the beliefs of other cultures are wrong?

A)relativistic
B)essentialist
C)objectivist
D)ethnocentric

Question 11

What word do the Balinese use to refer to the fighting cock and to a metaphorical hero,warrior,champion,political candidate,or tough guy?

A)Sabung
B)Mangu
C)Liget
D)Potlatch

Question 12

What does Clifford Geertz mean when he states that "human beings are incomplete or unfinished animals who complete themselves through culture - not just culture in general,but specific forms of it: Balinese,Italian,Ilongot,Chinese,Kwakiutl,American,and so on"?

A)Culture is forced on people and is oppressive.
B)Culture helps individuals become aware of their "true" egocentric self.
C)Culture helps individuals evolve from a primitive state of nature to modern society.
D)Culture helps people comprehend their experiences and impose order on their universe.

Question 13

The Peruvian practice of raising guinea pigs for food is not seen as appropriate in North America,where guinea pigs are raised as pets.What does that indicate about food acquisition and consumption patterns?

A)The edibility of an item is culturally determined.
B)The edibility of an item is based on nutritional considerations.
C)The edibility of an item is individually determined.
D)The edibility of an item is ethically determined.

Question 14

What did the Wari′ say they were doing by performing the ritual of funerary cannibalism?

A)defying colonial regulations
B)recycling their ancestors
C)obliterating painful memories
D)utilizing a protein source

Question 15

What is the main social function of funeral customs in Italy?

A)to allow an ancestor a chance to offer advice
B)to discourage the dead from returning
C)to force family members to make an offering
D)to bring good luck to the household

Question 16

What perspective does participant observation allow an anthropologist to attain?

A)emic
B)qualitative
C)etic
D)quantitative

Question 17

When working as an anthropologist,what would be the best way to interpret cultural similarities and differences in order to avoid both the ethnocentric and the relativistic fallacies?

A)by statistically mapping the various ways that humans construct their belief systems
B)by treating them as puzzles that can help us understand ourselves and others
C)by demonstrating how similar all cultures are
D)by determining social policies that will help to overcome the differences

Question 18

When anthropologists do participant observation,the act of setting aside their own cultural views and immersing themselves in a new culture,often causes them to take on a certain demeanour and status.What demeanour and status do anthropologists in this situation acquire?

A)dignitary
B)child
C)elder
D)academic

Question 19

What does a socio-cultural anthropologist hope to reveal about a culture by looking beyond the everyday experience and doing cross-cultural analysis?

A)the political anatomy of the culture
B)the meanings people give to everyday experiences
C)the true nature of society
D)the statistical basis of social hierarchies

Question 20

While anthropology has traditionally striven to be an objective and relativistic discipline,what has Nancy Scheper-Hughes suggested as a new approach for anthropologists?

A)morally engaged and ethically grounded
B)legally aware and logistically driven
C)stoic and impassively observant
D)ethnocentrically motivated and militant

Question 21

A Canadian's opinion,spoken while wearing a toque,that the ceremonial fur hat of an individual from another culture looks odd,can be considered ethnocentric.

Question 22

Historically,anthropologists focused their studies on indigenous groups,but now they are just as likely to study their own culture.

Question 23

What do both the Balinese cockfight and Canadian hockey conceptually represent in terms of small-scale renderings of their respective cultures?

A)violence
B)democracy
C)status
D)rivalry

Question 24

Anthropologists believe that it is easy to see through the eyes of someone living in another culture in an objective and emic way.

Question 25

Participant observation involves living with a group of people and participating in their daily tasks,except for the tedious mundane daily ones.

Question 26

According to the study by Peter Collings and Richard Condon,what new activity was appropriated by the residents of Holman,NWT,that enabled them to work through the social reality that hunting was no longer a dominant way to sustain oneself and achieve status?

A)pool
B)curling
C)hockey
D)swimming

Question 27

What could an anthropologist gain insight into by researching the purchase and consumption of popular fast food meals in North America?

A)how limited consumer nutritional education is
B)ecological patterns,demographics,agricultural history,and gender roles
C)intergenerational dependence
D)univocal nature of food

Question 28

If an anthropologist is attempting to understand the beliefs,behaviours,and rituals of a culture in terms of the function or meaning they have for the individuals of that culture,what approach is that anthropologist taking?

A)ethnocentric
B)relativistic
C)psychoanalytic
D)subjective

Question 29

According to the eminent 20^th century anthropologist,Claude Levi-Strauss,by doing fieldwork an anthropologist makes himself "marginal" in a world of "others."

Question 30

Renato Rosaldo,while doing research amongst the Ilongots with his wife Michelle,could not initially understand how rage stemming from grief could result in them severing the heads of other people in order to throw away the anger.What personal experience caused him to better understand their practice?

A)spinal paralysis
B)experiencing near starvation
C)the death of his wife
D)a kidnapping

Question 31

One of the ways that an anthropologist can come to understand hidden aspects of another culture is by making mistakes.

Question 32

People often use ethnocentric justifications for conquest and racism,while accepting the same practices and beliefs in their own culture that they abhor in the other culture.

Question 33

In a parallel to hockey in Canada,what idea is embedded in the cockfight for the Balinese?

A)the meaning of revenge
B)the meaning of success
C)the meaning of sport
D)the meaning of entertainment

Question 34

In North America,hockey is a performative demonstration of the cultural value of success.What else does it symbolically inform individuals in North America about?

A)the rules that govern success inside the rink
B)the rules that govern success outside the rink
C)the rules that govern the patriarchy
D)the rules that govern the merchant class

Question 35

Researching and understanding North American culture enables us to prove cultural superiority over third world countries.

Question 36

Why do Marvin Harris and Eric Ross believe beef became a centrepiece of the North American diet?

A)The meat is suitable for grilling.
B)Cattle are domestic to North America.
C)Livestock maintenance and processing is efficient.
D)Beef is high in protein and easy to digest.

Question 37

Contemporary anthropologists still rely on hierarchies of cultures in order to fully understand and compare the vast array of human beliefs and behaviours.

Question 38

Differences in cultural beliefs and practices can arise because people participate in different realities.

Question 39

Culture can give meaning to objects and events,while also obscuring their meaning.

Question 40

Ethnocentrism holds that no belief should be judged odd or wrong and that it must be understood in relation to the culture in which it is embedded.

Question 41

Sati is a funeral practice in some areas of India that involves the burning of a widow on her husband's funeral pyre.

Question 42

In anthropological terms,the text of a culture refers to the written and spoken language.

Question 43

Anthropological research is limited only to the study of cultures foreign to the researcher.

Question 44

While it is important symbolically as a central part of the diet in North America,beef-raising is a both environmentally destructive and inefficient.

Question 45

According to Yngve Lithman,rituals reflect real situations in a society and draw attention to,or try to "explain," other less tangible aspects.

Question 46

After returning to the shantytowns of Brazil,Nancy Scheper-Hughes realized that there was no contradiction between "objective" anthropology and politically committed anthropology.