Deck 1: Culture Fieldwork and American Anthropology

Question 1

Bea Medicine was an early anthropologist who worked with Native Americans. All of the following are associated with her work except:

A)Her goals as an anthropologist were to alleviate problems and provide self-help for native peoples.
B)She served as the head of the Women's Branch of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples in Canada.
C)Although she was born Lakota, she recognized that native peoples had to learn to operate effectively and accommodate to dominant society.
D)She worked as an advocate for national museums in order to expand their collections of native artifacts.

Answer 1

She worked as an advocate for national museums in order to expand their collections of native artifacts.

Question 2

As an academic discipline, anthropology is most distinguished by its:

A) research methodology.
B) focus on urban societies.
C) interest in social change and adaptation.
D) use of research teams and in-depth surveying techniques.

Answer 2

research methodology.

Question 3

Which of the following is most relevant to doing any kind of good anthropological research?

A)The number of interviews that the researcher can acquire while in the field
B) The quality of relationships with the people being studied
C) The amount of prior experience the researcher has had before any fieldwork occurs
D) The number of fieldworkers working within a site at any given time

Answer 3

The quality of relationships with the people being studied

Question 4

Participant observation is associated with all of the following except:

A) a prolonged field stay, typically one year.
B) a relationship of trust and rapport with those studied.
C) a development of positive ethnocentrism for the native society.
D) permissions and acceptance from the people being studied.

Question 5

The anthropological view that all cultures should be understood on their own terms is called:

A) ethnocentrism.
B) cultural relativism.
C) cultural adaptation.
D) salvage anthropology.

Question 6

What is the primary advantage of utilizing participant observation in anthropological research?

A)It allows the researcher to more fully understand a unique cultural perspective.
B)It allows the researcher to get to know the names of every individual within the society.
C)It provides the researcher with housing and assistance while the study is occurring.
D)It helps researchers learn the native language and understand all of its nuances.

Question 7

What is the primary reason that early (proto) anthropologists worked in salvage anthropology?

A)They believed that Native cultures were going to disappear shortly and everything about earlier human stages would be lost.
B)They believed that science needed research material and they had to build large museum collections.
C)They believed that Western society needed to learn more from Natives so that Westerners would better adapt to the New World.
D)They saw ethnography as employment and wanted to exhibit Native peoples and artifacts to entertain and impress large audiences.

Question 8

During which World's Fair did amateur anthropologist William McGee sponsor the "Department of Anthropology" exhibit of indigenous peoples and their artifacts?

A) 1918 Chicago World's Fair
B) 1910 San Francisco World's Fair
C) 1904 St. Louis World's Fair
D) 1908 New York City World's Fair

Question 9

Which of the following is not associated with social evolutionary theory?

A) Idea of evolutionary types
B) Doctrine of superiority
C) Ethnocentrism
D) Cultural relativism

Question 10

Social evolutionary theory that argues that all cultures go through the same stages over time to reach predetermined levels of progress (like rungs on a ladder) is also referred to as:

A) multilinear evolution.
B) unilineal evolution.
C) accelerated evolution.
D) punctuated equilibrium.

Question 11

Among the Zuni of the U.S. Southwest, the kiva is a(n):

A) women's dancing circle.
B) ceremonial cooking chamber.
C) fortress built above the living quarters.
D) underground men's lodge.

Question 12

Matilda Coxe Stevenson was associated with all of the following except:

A) the first Western discovery and entrance into a Zuni kiva.
B) research into the matrilineal kinship of the Zuni.
C) detailed description of Zuni women's activities.
D) primary author of many works on the Zuni.

Question 13

The approach to classify all human races within a single framework is known as:

A) polygenesis.
B) monogenesis.
C) historical particularism.
D) functionalism.

Question 14

Boas's approach to the study of indigenous peoples is known as the theory of:

A) historical particularism.
B) functionalism.
C) social evolution.
D) unilineal evolution.

Question 15

Which of the following is not associated with Franz Boas?

A) The study of cultural histories
B) Training in the physical and geographic sciences
C) Research among the Arctic peoples
D) Use of a social evolutionary approach

Question 16

In what way did Boas argue that artifacts should be displayed in museums?

A)Artifacts should be displayed as grouped similarities across cultures, showing that different cultures used similar forms and that all forms were related.
B)Artifacts should be displayed as unique parts of a cultural history of a single group, showing the use and significance of the artifact in a single cultural context.
C)Artifacts should be displayed from simple to complex across cultures to show how humans have developed and progressed over time.
D) Cultural artifacts should not be displayed for public exhibition.

Question 17

What did Boas mean by saying "classification is not explanation"?

A)He argued that grouping similar artifacts (across cultures) as like collections does not explain the meaning they had in their own cultural contexts.
B)He meant that museum curators needed to become anthropologists and go out and collect Native explanations for artifacts they were displaying.
C)He meant that explanations do not change from one culture to another and that there is no reason to individually describe each cultural artifact.
D)He argued that history is important and the ways that artifacts have changed over time is more meaningful-that change over time is more valuable than small differences in similar artifacts.

Question 18

The concept (term) that refers to changes brought about through contact with other cultural groups is known as:

A) cultural holism.
B) cultural evolution.
C) cultural particularism.
D) cultural adaptation.

Question 19

Following the era of social evolutionary theory, which type of theoretical current emerged as primary in anthropology?

A) Structuralism
B) Functionalism
C) Interpretive anthropology
D) Unilineal evolution

Question 20

The theory of structural-functionalism approached the study of society as a study on how:

A) institutions and structures function to support and maintain society.
B) behaviors of individuals function to meet their basic needs.
C)The function of society works as a cultural whole in order to structure cultures.
D) cultural holism allows for cultural adaptation.

Question 21

What is the primary critique against functionalism today as a theoretical approach?

A)The idea of a perfectly integrated and functional culture in a context of globalization is no longer as relevant.
B)The approach that culture has function is no longer relevant as culture is something that is optional in our global world.
C)The functional approach was based solely on indigenous societies and has no relevance at all to any urban societies.
D)Functionalism is criticized today for its evolutionary approach classifying societies as more or less advanced.

Question 22

As anthropology has become increasingly dissatisfied with functionalism, it has sought to rethink the:

A) importance of history in culture.
B) definition of culture.
C) idea of progress over time.
D) importance of the individual in society.

Question 23

A mixture of fixed and open-ended questions in an interview is referred to as a(n):

A) retrospective interview.
B) informal interview.
C) mixed media interview.
D) semi-structured interview.

Question 24

Which of the following is required by today's professional ethical standards?

A) Collaborative writing (anthropologist and those studied)
B) Informed consent provided by those being studied
C) Waiver signed by community leaders to conduct research
D) Written permits from all levels of political authority in the area studied

Question 25

Which anthropologists began fieldwork among the San in the 1950s?

A) Marshall family
B) Irven DeVore
C) Lee family
D) David Maybury-Lewis

Question 26

Anthropologists' primary ethical obligation is to:

A) host governments.
B) science and the researcher.
C) those studied.
D) the public at-large.

Question 27

Consulting work in anthropology is often associated with:

A) applied anthropology.
B) archaeology.
C) ethnology.
D) cultural anthropology.

Question 28

Human Terrain System (HTS) is a program on infrastructural knowledge associated with:

A) the National Geographic Society.
B) the U.S. military.
C) nongovernmental organizations such as Doctors without Borders.
D) medical anthropology programs.

Question 29

When William C. Young worked with the Rashaayda in the Sudan, he was:

A)Provided with a ready-made identity that he had to overcome in order to carry out his research.
B)Measuring culture change since long-term studies began with this group in the 1950s.
C)Using state-of-the-art fieldwork methods such as geographic information systems (GIS) and Human Terrain System (HTS).
D)Involved in numerous ethical challenges because his father was a member of this nomadic pastoral group.

Question 30

Anthropologists carry out primary field research, but they do not study one group over time.

Question 31

Our goal as anthropologists is to use our field methods to overcome ethnocentrism.

Question 32

Social evolutionary theory was derived completely from Charles Darwin's theory of biological evolution.

Question 33

Amateur anthropologist William McGee exhibited indigenous peoples at the World's Fair in order to prove that earlier stages of social life were less humane and had no value.

Question 34

Much of the early work in anthropology was supported and funded by the U.S. government.

Question 35

Both Frank Cushing and Matilda Coxe Stevenson worked exclusively with the Hopi Indians in the U.S. Southwest.

Question 36

Polygenesis is an early form of social evolutionary theory.

Question 37

Boas argued that "classification is explanation."

Question 38

Boas worked with museums to help them theoretically frame and contextualize the exhibition of artifacts.

Question 39

Cultural holism is the belief that cultures make sense when understood as part of an integrated cultural context.

Question 40

When a semi-structured interview is focused on the historical past, it is called a reflective interview.

Question 41

New mapping techniques have expanded the historical reach of cultural anthropologists.

Question 42

The San people have been studied by anthropologists since the beginning of the discipline in the U.S. Southwest.

Question 43

Informed consent is required before anthropologists undertake research in communities.

Question 44

Medical anthropology is a type of applied anthropology.

Question 45

​Define cultural relativism.

Question 46

Name at least three primary incentives for Westward Expansion that affected U.S. citizens during the nineteenth century.​

Question 47

​Compare and contrast monogenesis and polygenesis.

Question 48

Describe the approach of historical particularism and how it differs from social evolutionary theory.

Question 49

What are the characteristics and advantages of a semi-structured interview?

Question 50

​What is cultural relativism, and what role does it play in fieldwork?

Question 51

Explain the impact of social evolutionary theory on our early understandings of Native Americans in the U.S. Southwest.

Question 52

Describe the practices involved in contemporary fieldwork and how these have changed over the last century in anthropology.​