Deck 8: How Are Culture and Power Connected

Question 1

The Guatemalan Peace Accords were signed in December 1996, after how many years of civil war?

A) 6 years.
B) 16 years.
C) 36 years.
D) 56 years.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

According to the anthropologists Ted Fischer and Peter Benson, which of the following statements accurately describes the situation in Guatemala following the signing of the Peace Accords?

A) A new attitude toward Maya peoples that sought to provide new opportunities for a historically excluded group.
B) Famine brought about by droughts and declining coffee prices.
C) An increase in street crimes, gang violence, kidnappings, and robberies.
D) All of the above.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

According to Fischer and Benson, who actually made the Guatemala Peace Accords happen?

A) Maya peasants and other victims of government genocide.
B) The army.
C) The United States.
D) It is hard to determine who actually made the Peace Accords happen.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

According to Fischer and Benson, are Mayan farmers able to exercise agency under the dangerous and ambiguous circumstances that have followed the 1996 Peace Accords?

A) Mayan farmers are not able to exercise agency.
B) Mayan farmers discipline themselves to avoid thinking about all the ways in which the peace accords have failed to live up to their expectations.
C) Mayan farmers identify "limit points" beyond which their desire for change must not be allowed to go.
D) Both b and c are true.

Question 5

Transformative capacity is the text's definition of

A) Domination.
B) Free agency.
C) Power.
D) Social organization.

Question 6

Which of the following terms is used by Eric Wolf to refer to the form of social power that organizes social settings and controls the allocation of social labor?

A) Interpersonal power.
B) Organizational power.
C) Structural power.
D) Social power.

Question 7

Which of the following is a topic of interest to political anthropologists?

A) The classification and evolution of political systems.
B) The structure and functions of political systems.
C) The modernization of formerly tribal societies.
D) All of the above.

Question 8

In recent years, the anthropology of politics has addressed questions about

A) How former colonies have become states.
B) How the process of alienation works.
C) Power and inequality.
D) Free agency.

Question 9

In traditional Western thought, the prototype of power in human social relations is based on

A) Physical coercion.
B) Negotiation.
C) The ability to convince.
D) "Survival of the fittest."

Question 10

Research by political anthropologists has led to a reconsideration of

A) The political role of the state.
B) The political role of kinship.
C) Traditional Western notions about human nature.
D) All of the above.

Question 11

A worldview that justifies the social arrangements under which people live is called

A) Hegemony.
B) Ideology.
C) Domination.
D) Autonomy.

Question 12

According to Gramsci, power based on physical force is called

A) Hegemony.
B) Domination.
C) Autonomy.
D) Motivation.

Question 13

According to Gramsci, rulers who provide some genuine benefits to their subjects, spread an ideology that justifies their rule, and nevertheless succeed in protecting their privileges are exercising

A) Hegemony.
B) Domination.
C) Motivation.
D) Autonomy.

Question 14

According to Evans-Pritchard, Azande commoners did not accuse chiefs of witchcraft because

A) They feared retribution if they made their suspicions public.
B) Witches bewitch people they envy, and chiefs do not envy commoners.
C) Their belief system offered no way of coping with witchcraft.
D) Chiefs did not believe in witchcraft and thought that people who did were irrational.

Question 15

According to Alma Gottlieb, for a Beng king to be considered legitimate, he must

A) Be able to show that he is untainted by association with witchcraft.
B) Use witchcraft to kill three close relatives within his first year of rule.
C) Renounce witchcraft to show his independence from control by his own kinship group.
D) Show that he operates on the same plane of common morality as those over whom he rules.

Question 16

Because it draws attention to the central role of cultural symbols and practices in struggles to consolidate social organization and political control, anthropologists have found which of the following concepts attractive?

A) Hegemony.
B) Domination.
C) Motivation.
D) Autonomy.

Question 17

According to Michael Woost, a development scheme was never implemented in the Sri Lankan village he studied because

A) The national government was not interested in developing the area.
B) None of the local factions was willing to accept the government's arguments about the need for development.
C) Each local faction made what the others interpreted as unjust claims, blaming the lack of village unity on its opponents.
D) The villagers were not Buddhists.

Question 18

According to the text, the repeated resort of the Sri Lankan state to violent coercion against both Tamils and Sinhalese is a result of

A) Incompetent governments.
B) A military culture of repression.
C) Dominance without hegemony.
D) Power without authority.

Question 19

Fischer and Benson's discussion of the way Mayan farmers cope with dangerous and ambiguous circumstances in post-Peace Accords Guatemala emphasizes that

A) By defining satisfaction in terms of limit points they themselves identify, they are able to see themselves as having successfully satisfied at least some desires of their own choosing.
B) When Mayan farmers are forced again and again to settle for less profit on their broccoli, it is difficult for them to avoid the conclusion that they are being shortchanged.
C) The hegemonic process is an ambivalent, open-ended, never fully closed field of struggle.
D) All of the above.

Question 20

The state of Freedonia is concerned by the threat posed by its increasingly warlike neighbor, Sylvania. After the latest census figures are considered, the Freedonian government realizes that it will need both more soldiers and more factory output of military materials. The government introduces laws to reward larger families with tax credits, reforms the educational system to increase the number of students in vocational training, and institutes a military draft. According to the text, the government of Freedonia is engaging in

A) Autonomy.
B) Biopolitics.
C) Realpolitik.
D) Resistance.

Question 21

The actions taken by many contemporary nation-states to identify the level of terrorist threats, take action to stop them, and institute policies to minimize damage and disruption in the event of a terrorist attack would be considered examples of

A) Domination.
B) Governmentality.
C) Hegemony.
D) Too little, too late.

Question 22

Governmentality can best be understood as a way to

A) Keep rulers in power.
B) Ensure that people respect and obey the law.
C) Establish long-distance trading companies.
D) Manage individuals, goods, and wealth.

Question 23

Which of the following is NOT a form of governmentality that overseas Chinese try to evade?

A) That of Chinese kinship and family.
B) That of the nation-state.
C) That of the corporation.
D) That of the capitalist market.

Question 24

According to Aihwa Ong, as quoted in the text, one way that wealthy overseas Chinese can avoid the governmentality of a nation-state is by

A) Moving to another country.
B) Purchasing factories.
C) Avoiding being counted in the national census.
D) Not paying taxes.

Question 25

In the stateless societies of native North and South America, power is understood to be

A) Independent of human beings.
B) A negotiated relationship between people with different resources.
C) Derived from the consent of the governed.
D) Physical coercion.

Question 26

Which of the following statements is a consequence of assuming that power is part of the natural order of things, yet is independent of direct human control?

A) Power and violence go hand in hand.
B) Power and violence are antithetical.
C) Power lies in the human imagination.
D) All of the above are true.

Question 27

If the natural order of things is understood as a balance of forces independent of direct human control and violence is believed to threaten this universal balance, which of the following consequences seems to follow?

A) Domination can only be attained by particularly wily individuals.
B) Individuals can resist coercion.
C) Resistance is useless.
D) Power cannot be tapped by individuals.

Question 28

According to the anthropologist Lawrence Rosen, Moroccan men and women

A) Spend little time apart in everyday life.
B) Share experiences and interpret them similarly.
C) Negotiate their own marriages.
D) Share experiences, but interpret them differently.

Question 29

Which of the following figures described social life without the state as a "war of all against all"?

A) E. E. Evans-Pritchard.
B) Margaret Mead.
C) Thomas Hobbes.
D) Lewis Henry Morgan.

Question 30

According to Pierre Clastres, the most respected members of stateless societies are

A) Initiated men.
B) Persuasive speakers.
C) Men or women who have been able to amass coercive power.
D) The elderly.

Question 31

The power to refuse the imposition of other people's choices is the power of

A) A free agent.
B) A rational human being.
C) Resistance.
D) Fantasy.

Question 32

Which of the following terms was used by Emile Durkheim to describe the sense of normlessness and rootlessness experienced by many members of his society?

A) Anomie.
B) Alienation.
C) Anonymity.
D) Mechanical solidarity.

Question 33

Which of the following terms was used by Karl Marx to describe the deep separation workers seemed to experience between their innermost sense of identity and the labor they were forced to perform to earn enough money to live?

A) Anomie.
B) Alienation.
C) Anonymity.
D) Mechanical solidarity.

Question 34

According to Hoyt Alverson, most Tswana migrants whom he interviewed

A) Were alienated and dehumanized.
B) Lacked any means of coping with the oppression they had suffered in the gold mines of South Africa.
C) Led coherent and meaningful lives despite their involvement in an exploitative system.
D) Both a and b

Question 35

The traditional folktale character in many societies who lives by his wits, is basically amoral, and is happy to deceive anyone who tries to take advantage of him is known as

A) Tío.
B) Ch'alla.
C) Trickster.
D) Sedaka.

Question 36

Older Tswana migrants who recounted their life histories to Hoyt Alverson

A) Were classic illustrations of the "scars of bondage" thesis.
B) Saw themselves as Tricksters.
C) Described how they had turned the Ch'alla ritual against the mine owners.
D) Described how they had eventually given up their devotion to Tswana traditions.

Question 37

According to James Scott, occasional arrests, warnings, legal restrictions, and indefinite preventive detention are examples of

A) Everyday forms of peasant resistance.
B) Unusual forms of peasant resistance.
C) Unusual forms of repression.
D) Routine repression.

Question 38

In the example of a Moroccan marriage negotiation related by Lawrence Rosen, the young girl eventually married the young man her father had chosen because

A) She was persuaded that it was her duty to submit to her father's will.
B) The young man chosen for her agreed to move to Sefrou.
C) She was persuaded that the marriage made good economic sense.
D) Her mother sided with her father.

Question 39

The marriage negotiation described by Rosen in Sefrou, Morocco, shows how

A) Women may agree with the male position in general terms, yet dispute its relevance in a particular situation.
B) Men may get women to comply with their wishes, and yet women's reasons for doing so may have nothing to do with the reasons men offer to justify their demands.
C) Women and men share the same moral perspective and interpreted the young girl's resistance to her proposed marriage in the same way, despite the very separate worlds in which Moroccan women and men live.
D) Both a and b

Question 40

According to James Scott, foot-dragging, desertion, pilfering, slander, arson, and sabotage are examples of

A) Everyday forms of peasant resistance.
B) Unusual forms of peasant resistance.
C) Unusual forms of repression.
D) Routine repression.

Question 41

In Sedaka, rich and poor villagers alike agreed that

A) The benefits of combine harvesters outweigh their costs.
B) The costs of combine harvesters outweigh their benefits.
C) Using combine harvesters hurts the poor and helps the rich.
D) Using combine harvesters helps the poor and hurts the rich.

Question 42

According to Scott, the struggle between rich and poor villagers in Sedaka

A) Was a struggle over work and property rights.
B) Was a struggle over how the past and present shall be understood and labeled.
C) Was a struggle over the appropriation of symbols.
D) All of the above.

Question 43

Beginning in the 1970s, the rondas campesinas of northern Peru developed as

A) The first soldiers of the Maoist Shining Path movement.
B) New rural justice groups designed to combat animal rustlers.
C) New folkloric dance groups responding to increased tourism in the area.
D) Groups of peasants taking advantage of the opportunities provided by land reform.

Question 44

During the 1980s, the scope of the rondas campesinas

A) Expanded into an entire alternative justice system with open peasant assemblies to resolve a wide range of disputes.
B) Contracted as a result of increased government involvement in northern Peru.
C) Contracted as a result of increasing corruption among ronda leaders.
D) Spread to southern Peru and led to the creation of a national dance troupe that represented Peru in international competitions.

Question 45

Which of the following statements describes the relationship between the rondas campesinas and the rest of Peruvian culture?

A) Ronda organization was completely new and owed nothing to the rest of Peruvian culture.
B) The rondas see themselves as genuine upholders of the law and the Peruvian constitution.
C) The rondas made a decisive break from Peruvian tradition by permitting women to hold powerful positions as ronda leaders.
D) Both b and c are true.

Question 46

According to Orin Starn, over time the rondas campesinas have

A) Grown more violent.
B) Let peasants down by turning into arms of the traditional justice system.
C) Given Peruvian peasants the vision of an alternative modernity.
D) Corrupted indigenous traditions to become more commercially viable.

Question 47

To say that the central symbols of any cultural tradition are essentially negotiable means that

A) Symbols can mean anything an individual wants them to mean.
B) The application of those symbols to any given situation by one person can be contested by another person.
C) What each symbol means in any particular context is obvious to members of the culture.
D) The people with the greatest coercive power will always manage to make their account triumph over alternatives.

Question 48

Discuss the way power is understood in state and stateless societies.

Question 49

Power as a form of individual autonomy is notoriously difficult to erase from human consciousness, often to the frustration of political leaders. How does Alverson's discussion of the Tswana illustrate this?

Question 50

The anthropologist Richard N. Adams has said, "It is useful to accept the proposition that, while men have in some sense always been equal (i.e., in that each always has some independent power), they have in another sense never been equal." Discuss, with examples.

Question 51

The "scars of bondage" thesis argues that the more complete the political domination and exploitation of a people, the more deeply they will be scarred by the experience. Discuss, with examples.

Question 52

Alverson discusses the figure of the Trickster in Tswana folklore. Describe trickster characters in American folklore. Might they serve as prototypes for survival in our own society? Discuss.

Question 53

Are the forms of "everyday peasant resistance" described by Scott found only in peasant societies? Can you think of examples of behavior in American society that could be described in similar terms? What might this suggest about the circumstances in which practitioners of these actions live? Discuss.

Question 54

How is power based on persuasion possible?

Question 55

What is a "Big Man" or a man with influence? What kinds of power does he have? From where does he get his power?

Question 56

"Politics is . . . very much a matter of struggling over meaning, not just of physical coercion." Discuss, using examples.

Question 57

Why would the concept of biopolitics be useful to anthropologists doing ethnographic research?