Deck 6: Anthropological Explanations

Question 1

According to Karl Marx, society has been divided into classes by the industrial mode of production; those who own the means of production-the capitalists-exploit those who sell their labor to the owners of factories-the proletariat-and this exploitation leads to harsh working conditions and extremely low wages.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

An important premise of current Marxist anthropology is a rejection of the unilineal model of evolution.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Bronislaw Malinowski's psychological functionalism focused on how society functions to serve the interests or needs of the individual.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

According to general evolutionists such as Leslie White, since the degree of societal development is measured by the amount of energy harnessed by the sociocultural system, the greater the energy, the more highly evolved the system.

Question 5

The idea that societal and cultural change (or evolution) occurs when societies borrow cultural traits from one another is known as the "Cultural Spread Theory."

Question 6

It has been said that cultural ecology reduces human behavior to simple adaptations to the external environment, and that it does not take into consideration such things as history, political structure, and religious ideologies.

Question 7

Much of the ethnographic record has been compiled by men.

Question 8

Franz Boas called for an end to "armchair anthropology," insisting that scholars must do rigorous, scientifically based fieldwork to collect basic ethnographic data.

Question 9

Postmodernist anthropologists stress that ethnographers should present themselves as objective researchers.

Question 10

Lewis Henry Morgan believed in a hierarchical evolution of society from "savagery" to "civilization," but, unlike Edward
B. Tylor, Morgan emphasized the evolution of the family and kinship terms.

Question 11

Symbolic anthropologists argue that culture can be reduced to genetically inherited linguistic traits that determine the way people classify and view the natural environment.

Question 12

Franz Boas criticized attempts to propose stages of cultural evolution, maintaining that each society must be understood as a product of its own unique history.

Question 13

Cultural relativism is the notion that each society should be viewed in terms of its own unique cultural practices and values.

Question 14

Unilineal evolution is the view that all societies evolve in a single direction called "progress" toward complexity and civilization.

Question 15

Feminist anthropologists agree that monogamy is preferred by women because of its sociobiological advantages.

Question 16

In the nineteenth century, Edward
B. Tylor suggested that all societies progressed through three evolutionary stages: savagery, barbarism, and civilization.

Question 17

Karl Marx suggested that all of the major societal and cultural transformations (that is, cultural evolution) seen since the Industrial Revolution are the result of warfare between communist and capitalist nations vying for power and control over land.

Question 18

The British and German schools of cultural diffusion are considered to be obsolete as a means of understanding societal development because of their ethnocentric perspectives.

Question 19

The cultural ecological perspective of cultural evolution focuses on how specific sociocultural systems adapt to environmental conditions.

Question 20

Anthropologist Franz Boas was a powerful advocate for unilineal diffusion.

Question 21

Lewis Henry Morgan was a lawyer and banker of the late nineteenth century whose principal scholarship in anthropology was concerned with __________.

A) human physical variation
B) systems of human kinship
C) language acquisition
D) archaeology of the American Indians

Question 22

The methodology Lewis Henry Morgan used to investigate foreign cultures included __________.

A) the distribution of questionnaires to travelers and missionaries
B) participant observation of societies on South Pacific islands
C) training students as ethnographers
D) excavating ancient archaeological sites

Question 23

The principal criticism of nineteenth-century theories of "unilineal evolution" is that __________.

A) they were ethnocentric, holding that Western society was superior to all others
B) they relied too heavily upon biblical teachings
C) they were based on inadequate knowledge of the fossil record
D) they neglected the civilizations of ancient China and India

Question 24

The existence of a "joking relationship" (one in which interactions are typified by friendly teasing) between a man and his brothers-in-law would be explained by anthropologist A. R. Radcliffe-Brown as __________.

A) a structured relationship whose function is to reduce potential hostility
B) evidence for cultural influences on individual personality
C) an example of the importance of cultural relativism in kinship roles
D) the basis for materialistic behavior

Question 25

The view that society consists of institutions that serve vital purposes for its people is known as __________.

A) functionalism
B) structuralism
C) servitude
D) utilitarianism

Question 26

As anthropology emerged from the intellectual atmosphere of the Enlightenment, early anthropologists were interested in explaining the similarities and differences among the diverse cultures of the world. Edward B.Tylor attempted to answer the question of why societies were at different or similar levels of evolution and development through the explanation of __________.

A) functionalism
B) unilineal evolution
C) diffusionism
D) historical particularism

Question 27

Nineteenth-century theories of "unilineal evolution" proposed which of the following?

A) Modern humans are descended from ape-like creatures.
B) Human existence is characterized by continuous progress toward civilization.
C) Ancient Egypt is the source of all civilizations.
D) The Bible is the best reference on the human past.

Question 28

Edward B.Tylor and other eighteenth-century thinkers asserted that "primitives" around the world would eventually evolve through the stages of barbarism to become civilized like Europeans, but that these "primitives" would need some help from the civilized world to reach this ultimate, ideal stage. This perception that Western society is the center of the civilized world and that non-Western societies are inherently inferior is called __________.

A) logical negativism
B) logical positivism
C) ethnocentrism
D) devolution

Question 29

G. Elliot Smith and William J. Perry, major figures associated with the school of British diffusionism in the early twentieth century, proposed that

A) each culture has a key personality type
B) a culture can only be interpreted in the context of its own historical development
C) culture's principal function is establishing institutions to guide behavior
D) all aspects of civilization derived from the culture of ancient Egypt

Question 30

The concept of __________ maintains that societal change occurs when societies borrow cultural traits from one another.

A) functionalism
B) structuralism
C) evolutionary dispersal
D) diffusionism

Question 31

In order for diffusionism to work as envisioned by the British and German schools, adherents had to maintain that __________.

A) some peoples were not sufficiently innovative to develop their own cultural traits
B) Western and non-Western peoples were inherently equal
C) the cultural traits that were diffused were part of the technological dimension of the society
D) cultural traits in the same geographical region did not inevitably spread from one society to another

Question 32

The principal theoretical objective of modern anthropology is __________.

A) to document differences among ethnic groups
B) to study the close relationship between genetics and culture
C) to provide useful explanations of human society and behavior
D) to formulate laws for predicting human behavior and thought

Question 33

The body of anthropological theory concerned with the spread of technology, religion, economic systems, art forms, and other expressions of culture is known as __________.

A) idealism
B) particularism
C) functionalism
D) diffusionism

Question 34

Lewis Henry Morgan was primarily interested in the evolution of __________.

A) the brain
B) language
C) political systems
D) the family

Question 35

One of Franz Boas's principal criticisms of nineteenth-century anthropologists was that __________.

A) they failed to make use of archaeological evidence for pre-literate societies
B) their theories were based on "armchair anthropology" and not their own fieldwork
C) there was too much cultural relativism in their interpretations
D) they failed to assign adequate importance to biological effects on culture

Question 36

Functionalism is weak in which of the following areas?

A) explaining why cultural institutions change
B) proposing purposes for cultural practices
C) describing the psychological effects of cultural traditions
D) recognizing how different aspects of a society are integrated

Question 37

According to Franz Boas, in order to conduct a historical particularist study of a society, one must adopt the notion of __________, or the belief that each society should be understood in terms of its own cultural practices and values.

A) particular evolution
B) cultural relativism
C) functionalism
D) neoevolutionism

Question 38

Edward B.Tylor, who published a major book entitled Primitive Culture in 1871, is recognized as the first __________.

A) scholar appointed to an academic position in anthropology
B) person to formulate laws of human behavior
C) scientist to suggest a scenario for human evolution
D) anthropologist to live with primitive peoples in order to study them

Question 39

The opposite of cultural relativism is __________.

A) biological relativism
B) ethnocentrism
C) biological realism
D) historical particularism

Question 40

The term "functionalism" in anthropology refers to the notion that __________.

A) ethnographers are competent observers of human culture
B) some societies are "functional" while others are "dysfunctional"
C) cultural practices function to fulfill specific needs in a given society
D) culture is transmitted through functions like rituals and ceremonies

Question 41

A major division in anthropology is between __________.

A) sociobiologists and sociolinguists
B) Marxists and capitalists
C) ethnographers and ethologists
D) materialists and culturalists

Question 42

The neoevolutionists' perspective differed from the nineteenth-century evolutionists' ideas in a number of ways. The neoevolutionists __________.

A) assumed a unilineal direction for society from savagery to barbarism to civilization
B) did not assume that sociocultural evolution toward complexity was always equated with progress
C) were ethnocentric and racist in their approach to understanding cultural evolution and complexity
D) assumed that civilization was the pinnacle of sociocultural development

Question 43

Explanations for the differences and similarities among societies have been many and varied throughout the development of anthropology. What are the basic premises, strengths, and weaknesses of the following ideas: unilineal evolution, diffusionism, and historical particularism?

Question 44

Define psychological and structural functionalism. Do you think that these approaches are compatible with cultural ecology and cultural materialism? Why or why not?

Question 45

Discuss the principal effects that the writings of Karl Marx have had on anthropological theory. Support your answer with specific examples.

Question 46

According to Leslie White's theory of the evolution of sociocultural systems, the most highly evolved culture would be one __________.

A) using nuclear energy to generate electricity
B) dependent upon animals to pull plows
C) with industries powered by coal and steam
D) based on the use of human labor alone

Question 47

What are some of the criticisms that have been leveled at the cultural ecological approach? Do you think these criticisms are valid? If so, how would you modify the cultural ecological perspective to take into account the criticism?

Question 48

Symbolic anthropologists argue that human behavior cannot be explained through the use of the scientific method. Do you agree with their standpoint? Why or why not?

Question 49

According to Julian Steward, the environment and the availability of resources has a definite influence on the form of social organization. This approach to studying cultural evolution, called __________, was exemplified nicely in his study of the social organization of the Shoshone during different seasons of the year.

A) cultural materialism
B) environmental determinism
C) environmentally driven evolution
D) cultural ecology

Question 50

According to Bronislaw Malinowski, magic __________.

A) has a basis in the existence of supernatural powers in all cultures
B) functions to relieve the anxieties of individuals
C) only works when it has the full participation of a given society
D) has no useful purpose for thinking people

Question 51

Compare and contrast the perspectives of the cultural materialists and Marxists. Are these theoretical views similar in any manner, or are they mutually exclusive and contradictory in nature? Explain.

Question 52

Feminist anthropologists have pointed out which of the following weaknesses in the ethnographic record?

A) The inequalities between men and women have been exaggerated.
B) The multidirectional process of cultural evolution has been overlooked.
C) Men have dominated the informant pool.
D) Women are unable to access information about the cultural practices of men.

Question 53

Explain how postmodernism has affected anthropological explanation. What is the postmodern critique of ethnography? Describe some of the changes to ethnographic research and writing that would be recommended by postmodernist anthropologists.

Question 54

Which of the following theoretical orientations interprets cultures much like literary texts?

A) symbolic anthropology
B) textual anthropology
C) literary anthropology
D) ideational anthropology

Question 55

Discuss the principal differences between nineteenth-century models for unilineal evolution and twentieth-century neoevolutionary theories. Who were the principal proponents of each?

Question 56

Karl Marx's approach to understanding society drew on the work of __________.

A) Franz Boas
B) Lewis Henry Morgan
C) Bronislaw Malinowski
D) Leslie White

Question 57

Postmodernist anthropologists emphasize which of the following?

A) Anthropologists are the only people who can speak about culture with any expertise.
B) Native informants should be treated as objective research participants.
C) Anthropological research is always unbiased.
D) Ethnographers need to recognize how they are influenced by their own societies.

Question 58

The research strategy that focuses on technology, environment, and economic factors as key determinants in sociocultural evolution while dividing the sociocultural system into "infrastructure," "structure," and "superstructure" is called __________.

A) economic determinism
B) cultural materialism
C) techno-evolution
D) cultural ecology

Question 59

Compare and contrast the perspectives of the symbolic anthropologists with the Marxists and the cultural materialists.

Question 60

Explain the major tenets of feminist anthropology. How does the feminist orientation developed in the 1960s and 1970s compare to the earlier work by female anthropologists? Support your answer with specific examples.