Deck 1: Anthropology and Human Diversity

Question 1

One critical difference between Western ethnocentrism and the ethnocentrism of many other peoples is:

A)Westerners are more ethnocentric than others.
B)Westerners are less ethnocentric than others.
C)Westerners have more often been in a position to impose their view of culture than have others.
D)Western notions of ethnocentrism include religious superiority while others did not.
E)Western notions of ethnocentrism were justified while others were not.

Answer 1

Westerners have more often been in a position to impose their view of culture than have others.

Question 2

A primary contribution of urban archaeologists is the development of:

A)New architecture based on traditional designs.
B)New methods of city governance.
C)New knowledge about people who resided at the site.
D)New insights into agriculture.
E)New information about traditional Native American lifestyles.

Answer 2

New knowledge about people who resided at the site.

Question 3

The critical factor that distinguishes anthropology from other fields of study is:

A)Its emphasis on rigorous experimentation and analysis of data.
B)Its exclusive focus on non-Western cultures.
C)Its use of theories of biological evolution to explain human behavior.
D)Its interest in describing humankind throughout time and in all parts of the world.
E)Its focus on the discovery of a single human nature.

Answer 3

Its interest in describing humankind throughout time and in all parts of the world.

Question 4

A critical insight of medical anthropology is that:

A)Disease and medicine never exist independently from culture.
B)Diseases are universal,biological entities and have little relation to culture.
C)There is a single,universal medical model that is applicable to all cultures.
D)Although diseases may have different names and different treatments in different cultures,the same diseases are present in all cultures.
E)Traditional cultures have a greater number of diseases that modern medicine considers "psychological" than does modern culture.

Question 5

A positive value of ethnocentrism for a society is that it:

A)Decreases the chance of war.
B)Helps members of a society bond together as a social unit.
C)Increases an individual's ability to act independently of others.
D)Results in a higher standard of living because of an emphasis on progress.
E)Increases equality between males and females within a society.

Question 6

Anthropologists say that human adaptation is biocultural.Which of the following best represents what is meant by this statement?

A)Human adaptation is both biological and cultural,and anthropologists cannot distinguish between the meanings of these concepts.
B)Human adaptation involves both biological and cultural dimensions and each influences the other.
C)Human adaptation is unique among all animals because it is based exclusively on physiological adaptations.
D)Human adaptation is the same as that of all animal because culture plays a role in the adaptation of all forms of life.
E)Human adaptation is based exclusively on culture.Biology is subsumed within the cultural dimension and does not exert an independent influence on humans.

Question 7

One of the most critical goals of cultural anthropology as an academic discipline is to:

A)Describe,analyze,and explain different cultures.
B)Increase the level of culture in particular human societies.
C)Place large numbers of cultural anthropologists in political offices.
D)Determine the direction of human evolution.
E)Preserve world heritage for future generations.

Question 8

Archaeologists are principally interested in:

A)Excavating sites and developing museums to preserve ancient landforms.
B)Collecting artifacts made by ancient peoples.
C)Tracing the course of human evolution through an examination of the fossilized remains.
D)Understanding and reconstructing the cultures of past societies.
E)Tracing the early development of Western civilization.

Question 9

All of the following statements about the understanding of culture in anthropology are correct except:

A)Culture is biologically and genetically transmitted from person to person.
B)Culture is the way of life of a particular human society.
C)Culture is the learned behaviors and symbols that allow people to live in groups.
D)Culture is the primary way that human adapt to their environments.

Question 10

Psychiatry has been a frequent subject of medical anthropology.One critical finding is:

A)The Freudian model of psychoanalysis is appropriate to all cultures universally.
B)People in all cultures experience universal psycho-sexual stages of development.
C)Schizophrenics are considered ill in Western cultures but are considered religiously enlightened in other cultures.
D)Doctors are most frequently trained to treat mental disease as a result of either biological dysfunction or psychosocial factors but not both.
E)Mental illness is always caused by social factors,but because of the influence of drug companies,doctors are reluctant to believe this finding.

Question 11

Which of the following best illustrates why applied anthropology is important today?

A)It helps us understand which cultures are superior.
B)It contributes to our understanding of the evolution of human beings.
C)It provides new forms of technology and new ways of coordinating populations.
D)It creates the basis for world peace.
E)It opens up new perspectives and insights in understanding our human differences.

Question 12

Indigenous peoples involve all of the following except:

A)Members of a society that have occupied a region for a long time.
B)Members of groups recognized as original inhabitants.
C)Members of any group who dress as indigenous peoples and participate in native pow-wows.
D)Members of a group that is recognized as very ancient to a region.
E)Members of a group that continues to live in a traditional manner.

Question 13

An emic approach to the study of culture is one that emphasizes:

A)The description of a culture from the point of view of a member of the culture.
B)The comparison of similar parts of different cultures.
C)The study of the ecological adaptation of a culture.
D)Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism.
E)The search for general laws or principles that can be applied to all human cultures.

Question 14

Which of the following studies how languages are related to each other?

A)Biological anthropology
B)Human variation
C)Historical linguistics
D)Paleo-linguistics
E)Cultural linguistics

Question 15

To say that anthropology is holistic means that anthropologists are particularly interested in:

A)Objects and acts regarded as holy by various peoples.
B)The whole personality of any particular individual.
C)The integration of biological,sociocultural,and environmental factors in explaining human behavior.
D)Studying every culture in the world.
E)The efforts to find holes in particular theories.

Question 16

Which of the following correctly identifies the sub-disciplines of anthropology?

A)Archaeology,Anthropometry,Cultural Anthropology,Paleontology,and Cultural Relativity.
B)Archaeology,Cultural Anthropology,Cognitive Anthropology,Ethno-history,and Linguistics.
C)Archaeology,Ethno-history,Anthropometry,Structural Anthropology,and Cultural Anthropology.
D)Archaeology,Cultural Anthropology,Physical Anthropology,Applied Anthropology and Linguistics.
E)Archaeology,Phonology,Medical Anthropology,Development Studies,and Cultural Anthropology.

Question 17

What is ethnography?

A)It is the reconstruction of past cultures based on material remains.
B)It is the scientific study of the concept of culture and adaptation.
C)It is the process of doing qualitative,fieldwork-based research.
D)It is the protection and exhibition of cultural resources.
E)It is the process of seeking laws and general principles that govern cultural phenomena.

Question 18

Ethnocentrism is the tendency for:

A)Every society to view itself as superior to others.
B)Every society to want to exploit the wealth of other societies.
C)Every individual to consider him/herself the equal of others.
D)Every individual to want to see another's point of view.
E)Every society to value the group above the individual.

Question 19

Which of the following problems would an applied anthropologist be most likely to study?

A)The ways in which families are organized to carry out the basic tasks of farming in agricultural societies.
B)The ways in which health care delivery to American minority communities might be improved.
C)The ways in which a society's religious beliefs relate to its artwork.
D)The relationship between the language members of a culture speak and the ways in which they understand the world.
E)The percentage of goods and practices in a culture that have their origins in a different culture.

Question 20

One important use of applied archaeology mentioned in the text is:

A)To settle border disputes between modern nations.
B)To prove the fundamental truths of evolution.
C)To demonstrate the ancient presence of humans in the Americas and in China.
D)To demonstrate that no Europeans were present in North America before Columbus.
E)To increase agricultural yields by revitalizing ancient irrigation techniques.

Question 21

When ethnocentrism becomes very marked and begins to target a specific ethnic group,it can lead to:

A)Bureaucratization.
B)Racism.
C)Cultural relativism.
D)Moral superiority.

Question 22

Genetic studies indicate:

A)Individual differences are greater than the sum of differences between groups.
B)Racial differences can be substantiated genetically.
C)Traits such as skin color are reliable means of classifying people.
D)Race is a biological construct and is useful only in science.
E)It is possible to determine how closely two individuals are related based on observable features.

Question 23

Humans' capacity for culture is based on our unique biology.

Question 24

Traits such as skin color,hair color and texture,and nose shape are often chosen to determine race because:

A)They are easily visible.
B)They are the most important to human cultures.
C)They determine physical attractiveness and hence mating behavior.
D)They have greater biological importance than other traits (regardless of their other cultural importance).
E)They occur in more consistent,predictable ways than other traits.

Question 25

During the late 20th century:

A)The United States has become an increasingly dominant force culturally and socially in the world.
B)Members of minority groups in the United States have moved to stronger economic and political positions.
C)The world has become more and more a domain of nationalist strongholds.
D)White,Protestant,Northern European males have begun to have more power and exert a more dominant force in national decision-making.
E)Immigrants are less connected with their homelands of origin,leaving them eager to assimilate into United States culture.

Question 26

The current un-contacted population of the world is probably around:

A)Zero.
B)1,000.
C)10,000.
D)100,000.
E)1,000,000.

Question 27

Anthropologist J.Christopher Kovats-Bernat argues that when an anthropologist pursues studies of "ethnography of violence," the anthropologist and informant must have what type of relationship between them?

A)Autonomy.
B)Self-preservation.
C)Respect.
D)Mutual advantage.
E)Mutual responsibility.

Question 28

Biopsychological equality is the notion that:

A)Every person has equal intelligence.
B)All human groups have equal biological and mental capabilities.
C)From a biological and psychological perspective humans are,for all practical purposes,the same as other primates.
D)There should be political programs to assure equal rights of all people.
E)Human culture is rooted in human biology.

Question 29

Cultural relativism requires that:

A)All cultures be seen as equally good.
B)All cultures be seen as equally self-serving.
C)All cultures be measured against our own.
D)An individual must give up his/her culture in order to understand another culture.
E)Values and customs be understood in terms of the culture of which they are a part.

Question 30

How has anthropological fieldwork in non-Western areas most changed since the mid-1900s?

A)Today,anthropologists work among people who are very likely to read their works and comment on them.
B)Today,anthropologists work primarily in colonial areas,where the native population benefits from scientific study.
C)Today,anthropologists no longer seek permission to do fieldwork in isolated geographical areas.
D)Today,anthropologists serve in local governments and can return favors to populations who participate in their research.
E)Today,anthropologists no longer do long-term fieldwork as they did years ago.

Question 31

Your textbook argues that multiculturalism:

A)Should be embraced by all Americans.
B)Should be resisted by all who fear the passing of the American Way of Life.
C)Is inevitable in an increasingly globalized world.
D)Exposes a fundamental truth about the nature of human societies and cultures.
E)Is dangerous to every culture but is also ultimately unstoppable.

Question 32

All of the following are ways that globalization has affected anthropology except:

A)Anthropologists have become increasingly more politically engaged with indigenous peoples.
B)Anthropologists have become more active in social action to defend minority populations.
C)Anthropologists today are more focused on studying relationships and exchanges between populations.
D)Studies today are more holistic and tend to focus on the particular and specific characteristics of the societies in which the anthropologist is researching.
E)Anthropologists frequently collaborate with those they study in order to better represent the culture and its changes.

Question 33

Which of the following statements is correct?

A)There is no such thing as a cultural universal.
B)There are cultural universals,but there is no single explanation about how they developed.
C)Anthropologists believe that cultural universals exist because at one time there was a single human culture.
D)Periodically cultural universals occur,especially at points of evolution.
E)Human evolution could not occur without cultural universals.

Question 34

In Anthropology,the concept of race:

A)Has been found to be inadequate for scientifically meaningful classification of humans.
B)Has great scientific utility but no political implication.
C)Is agreed on by both biological and cultural anthropologists to be very useful in analyzing human behavior.
D)Is outmoded as there are no patterned biological differences in the human species.
E)Is no different from racism.

Question 35

What is hubris?

A)Excessive pride or confidence that leads to arrogance and insolence.
B)The belief that one's society is the most perfect currently existing society.
C)The belief that all cultures should be evaluated on their own merits rather than by a universal yardstick.
D)Feelings of insecurity and inferiority caused by rapid culture change.
E)The belief that working hard will inevitably lead to success.

Question 36

Anthropologists only study contemporary,living peoples.

Question 37

All of the following were considered the highest risk field dangers in a 1990 study of anthropologists except:

A)Tuberculosis.
B)Vehicle crashes.
C)Malaria.
D)Hepatitis.

Question 38

Your textbook argues that jobs for anthropologists are:

A)Far more plentiful than jobs for sociologists or English majors.
B)Easily available for those with a BA in the field.
C)About the same as those available to students in other Liberal Arts disciplines.
D)Expected to greatly increase in number in the next five to ten years.
E)Rare and generally only available to those with Masters degrees and PhDs.

Question 39

New international conditions have created problems and opportunities for anthropologists working in the field.What are some of the challenges that J.Christopher Kovats-Bernat associates with doing "ethnography of violence"?

A)There is often unstable political organization,difficult and dangerous physical conditions,and difficulties in making ethical decisions.
B)Informants do not want to work with the anthropologist because of lack of anonymity and the anthropologist cannot live in a central location.
C)Social conditions are difficult,the anthropologist faces challenges in breaking local laws,and newspapers will not publish personal interest stories.
D)It is difficult to study violence because it is infrequent and cannot be controlled.Also,the anthropologist frequently cannot get official permission to work in areas of violence.
E)Violence is a cultural concept and anthropologists find it difficult to define this term.The "ethnography of violence," according to Kovats-Bernat,is an ethnocentric concept.

Question 40

Within the discipline of anthropology,globalization has:

A)Decreased the need for anthropologists.
B)Tended to increase the political involvement of some anthropologists.
C)Enabled anthropologists to use technology to do fieldwork without leaving their offices.
D)Allowed anthropologists to become members of native cultures to a greater extent than before.
E)Made it easier for anthologists to publish their findings.

Question 41

Culture is human behavior that is genetically transmitted.

Question 42

All humans live in cultures.

Question 43

Language is a human symbol system for communication,but it is not considered a means of cultural transmission.

Question 44

Ethnocentrism is always bad.

Question 45

Race is an important social fact but the big differences among human beings are the result of culture.

Question 46

Medical anthropologists work in other cultures but are rarely focused on healthcare in the United States.

Question 47

What is the study of paleoanthropology?

Question 48

Cultural relativism is the perceptual bias that prevents us from seeing the logic in other cultures.

Question 49

Applied anthropologists are usually trained in one of the four primary subdisciplines.

Question 50

Anthropologists have never discovered a valid and consistent way of dividing humanity into a fixed number of races.

Question 51

Today,in an effort to better understand the foundations of violence,anthropologists tend to remain as politically and socially isolated as possible during fieldwork.

Question 52

The American Anthropological Association's current Code of Ethics has worked well in situations of violence and political danger.

Question 53

Members of the cultures that anthropologists study rarely have access to news of the outside world.

Question 54

All human beings belong to a discrete number of races.

Question 55

Anthropologists believe that there is no such thing as a cultural universal.

Question 56

Anthropology degrees lead to about the same job prospects as other liberal arts degrees.

Question 57

Archaeologists infer culture from material remains of past societies.

Question 58

A study that analyzes culture using Western scientific theories is called an etic ethnography.

Question 59

Globalization has changed the ways that anthropologists work and write.

Question 60

What distinguishes anthropology from other academic disciplines?

Question 61

Consider the "ethnography of violence" that you read about in this chapter.Why is violence an important topic of study for today's anthropologists? How might ethical concerns be addressed specifically for these situations?

Question 62

How is cultural relativism different from ethnocentrism?

Question 63

What are two ways that globalization has affected anthropology?

Question 64

What is the current world population,and approximately how many people are considered "un-contacted" by industrialized cultures?

Question 65

What do archaeologists study?

Question 66

Why does the current Code of Ethics raise concerns for those anthropologists working under conditions of violence?

Question 67

What does it mean to say that we "perform language"?

Question 68

Based on mathematical models of migration and genealogy,when do scientists believe that all contemporary humans most recently shared a common ancestor?

Question 69

Distinguish between the emic and etic perspectives.

Question 70

Define ethnocentrism and explain how it can be maladaptive.

Question 71

What does J.Christopher Kovats-Bernat mean by the concept of "mutual responsibility" under ethnographic conditions of violence?

Question 72

What is the importance of multiculturalism for anthropology?

Question 73

What are the three primary problems with the biological concept of race as a category of human classification?

Question 74

Besides providing social,cultural,and political perspectives on health,what else do medical anthropologists do?

Question 75

Long-term fieldwork in cultural anthropology that involves living with and observing other people is called __________.

Question 76

Why are anthropologists more politically and socially engaged today with the populations they are studying?

Question 77

How is anthropology different from other social science disciplines as far as occupational skills today?

Question 78

Why is work such as applied anthropology important in our world today?

Question 79

How can anthropology be used in our own society? Choose two social problems that you believe are significant in our lives today and discuss ways that anthropology may contribute to a better understanding of the issues and more effective ways of finding positive resolution.

Question 80

How do anthropologists define "indigenous persons"?