Deck 8: Environment, Subsistence, and Demography

Question 1

During the latter phase of the demographic transition, birth rates and mortality rates increase dramatically.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

During the early part of the Industrial Revolution, the population increased dramatically.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Ju/'hoansi San women were often able to gather enough food from wild sources in one or two days to feed their children for an entire week.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Demographic anthropologists are interested in demonstrating how cultural systems modify the natural environment.

Question 5

The Nuer slaughter most of their cattle in the fall and store the meat for use over the year.

Question 6

A biome is a cultural area where people behave in a predictable manner.

Question 7

Hunting-and-gathering societies have always existed in marginal environments.

Question 8

The Native American urban center of Cahokia illustrates the connection between abundant natural resources and the emergence of chiefdoms.

Question 9

Since hunter-gatherer societies are mobile, the environment does not influence demographic characteristics such as population growth, fertility, and mortality.

Question 10

Intensive agriculture allows a population to produce a surplus of food to support larger families.

Question 11

Before the Industrial Revolution, most societies depended on fossil fuels to support their ways of life.

Question 12

During times of famine, the Inuit occasionally abandoned the elderly and infirm, leaving them to die.

Question 13

According to ethnographic studies, Australian Aboriginal hunter-gatherers spent four to five hours per day per person in gathering food.

Question 14

Since cooking fires had to be fueled with expensive oil made from blubber, Eskimos ate much of their food raw.

Question 15

Slash-and-burn cultivation is found primarily in Arctic and tundra areas where the growing season is short.

Question 16

Hunter-gatherer societies have never been in contact with or influenced by other cultures.

Question 17

Mortality rates have always been lower in agricultural societies.

Question 18

The horticulturalist Iroquois depended solely on cultivated food resources.

Question 19

Anthropological research has shown that biological rather than cultural factors are responsible for the rapid growth and high fertility rates of forager populations.

Question 20

The infant mortality rate of a society equals the number of babies per thousand births per year that die before reaching the age of five.

Question 21

In order to understand population change and distribution, demographic anthropologists usually focus on which variables in a population?

A) resources, capital, and technology
B) fertility, mortality, and migration
C) language, race, and culture
D) social organization, technology, and ideology

Question 22

A foraging society depends on __________ for food.

A) the cultivation of plants
B) the herding of animals
C) primitive agriculture
D) wild resources

Question 23

In contrast to Paleolithic hunting-and-gathering societies, contemporary band societies exist only in __________.

A) marginal environments
B) rich environments
C) tropical forests
D) deserts and savannas

Question 24

Building on Leslie White's idea that sociocultural evolution progressed by the amount of energy it harnessed, John Bodley has suggested that there are __________ cultures.

A) stagnant and dynamic
B) devolved and evolved
C) low-energy and high-energy
D) unproductive and productive

Question 25

Marginal environments often sustain hunting-and-gathering societies where agricultural societies cannot exist because __________.

A) the resource and energy demands of agricultural societies are low
B) foraging societies have lower resource and energy requirements
C) marginal environments have always sustained large populations of foragers
D) most agricultural societies have become industrialized

Question 26

What is one of the chief advantages of slash-and-burn cultivation?

A) It involves a huge labor force in converting forest to agricultural fields.
B) It can be carried out indefinitely on a single plot of land.
C) It produces food without complex technology.
D) It is effective in virtually any environment.

Question 27

The areas inhabited by most chiefdoms have been characterized by __________.

A) an abundance of natural resources
B) unpredictable climates
C) scarce floral and faunal resources
D) marginal environmental conditions

Question 28

Nuer subsistence, like that of many other pastoral peoples, __________.

A) is based primarily on the consumption of meat products
B) is based solely on cattle and pigs
C) depends heavily on the blood and milk of their animals
D) is largely based on crops and foraging, with herding only contributing a small portion to the diet

Question 29

The process by which an organism adjusts successfully to a specific environment is called __________.

A) anthropogenesis
B) ecology
C) adaptation
D) niche adjustment

Question 30

Compared with hunting-and-gathering band-level societies, tribal societies are __________.

A) smaller and more highly mobile across broad regions
B) larger, but with more loosely defined territories
C) larger, more sedentary, and have fairly well defined territories
D) smaller, less mobile, and have less political integration

Question 31

Why are the Native American societies of the Northwest Coast such as the Bella Coola, Haida, and Tlingit considered atypical of chiefdom societies?

A) They cultivated taro, yams, and sweet potatoes.
B) They were governed by tribal councils.
C) They were hunters and gatherers and did not practice horticulture.
D) They had no urban centers.

Question 32

Anthropologists use the term "pastoralists" to refer to peoples who __________.

A) live in sedentary villages and rely principally on farming
B) are highly mobile, gathering wild plant foods from forest clearings
C) rely primarily on herd animals, such as caribou, cattle, sheep, or goats
D) subsist by slash-and-burn cultivation of forest lands

Question 33

Anthropologist Richard Lee has estimated that the traditional Ju/'hoansi San spent between __________ days each week finding food.

A) two to three
B) four to five
C) five to six
D) six to seven

Question 34

What is meant by regional symbiosis?

A) the way that plants, animals, and humans learn to live in harmony
B) a type of language that was developed so that peoples from different chiefdoms could understand each other
C) the mutual dependence created when groups of people who live in different ecological habitats exchange their locally obtained products
D) the splitting and recombining of chiefdoms in a particular area

Question 35

Studies of hunter-gatherer groups often include an investigation of the maximum population that a specific environment can support, or what is called the __________.

A) fecundity
B) life expectancy
C) carrying capacity
D) niche load

Question 36

In the traditional society of the Mbuti pygmies of the Ituri rainforest, hunting is undertaken by __________.

A) the older men of the village
B) men, youths, women, and children
C) boys who have undergone sacred puberty rites
D) adult women of the hunting clans

Question 37

While studying the Yanomamö, Napoleon Chagnon found that soil depletion was not the only reason that they moved their garden plots. What other reason did he find?

A) Major population movements of the Yanomamö were due to warfare and conflict with neighbors.
B) The Yanomamö simply got tired of living in the same area and moved.
C) The Yanomamö had developed a 25-year plan that detailed their moves from year to year.
D) These cleared plots eventually became shallow ponds that could no longer be used as gardens.

Question 38

Most of the diet of the Ju/'hoansi San comes from __________.

A) meat from hunting
B) nuts, berries, fruits, and roots
C) fish and shellfish
D) agricultural products

Question 39

Which of the following may be largely responsible for the development of chiefdoms?

A) the emergence of charismatic leaders
B) food surpluses
C) population growth
D) regional symbiosis

Question 40

When did agricultural civilizations begin to develop?

A) 1,000 to 2,000 years ago
B) 10,000 years ago
C) 30,000 years ago
D) 200,000 years ago

Question 41

How has the Industrial Revolution affected energy use? Discuss the emergence of industrial and postindustrial societies, their characteristics, and how they meet their subsistence needs.

Question 42

Describe pastoralist subsistence patterns. What types of environments do pastoralists inhabit today? How do they make use of natural resources? Include a discussion of the East African cattle complex in your answer.

Question 43

What is the demographic transition? Explain why this transition takes place and the conditions that affect it. Support your answer with specific details.

Question 44

Which of the following would have the effect of lowering fertility?

A) marriage at a younger age
B) sexual abstinence
C) weaning babies earlier
D) an earlier onset of menarche

Question 45

__________ are incentives for people to move from one society to another.

A) Demographic determinants
B) Migration factors
C) Push factors
D) Pull factors

Question 46

The Semang of Malaysia, who hunt with blowguns, get most of their meat from __________.

A) elephants and buffalo
B) kangaroos and the ostrich-like emu
C) fish and other small game
D) monkeys and crocodiles

Question 47

Describe the demographic changes that emerge in agricultural societies. How are these changes tied to subsistence? Support your answer with specific examples.

Question 48

Discuss human cultural adaptations to different environments. What patterns have anthropologists noted in terms of human subsistence patterns? Give examples of how human subsistence needs and the natural environment intersect.

Question 49

Why do anthropologists study demography? Illustrate with an example that shows how demographic analysis intersects with other areas of anthropological interest. Include a description of the quantitative demographic measures that would be relevant to the example you have chosen.

Question 50

Compare and contrast the characteristics of chiefdoms in Africa and North America in terms of the environment, subsistence, and demography. How do these examples illustrate the similarities and differences that anthropologists have noted in chiefdom societies?

Question 51

Describe the environments occupied by foragers today. How do these compare to areas occupied by foragers in the distant past? What accounts for these changes?

Question 52

The chiefdom societies in Tahiti enhanced their agricultural yield through __________.

A) swidden agriculture
B) irrigation and land terracing
C) the plowing of large areas of land
D) animal husbandry

Question 53

Compare and contrast horticulture and intensive agriculture in terms of how the environment is used to meet subsistence needs. Illustrate with cross-cultural examples.

Question 54

High infant mortality rates, the view that children are future assets who can care for their parents in old age, and the benefits associated with child labor all encouraged individuals in agricultural states to do which of the following?

A) have large families
B) rely on sorcery, witchcraft, and shamanism to ensure that very few people died
C) have small families so that special care could be accorded each child
D) raid forager and tribal groups in order to steal children who could be used to work the fields

Question 55

What do the terms "fission" and "fusion" refer to in hunting-and-gathering societies?

A) hazards of contacts with the industrialized world
B) cyclical change in population density relative to resources
C) decision-making processes used by tribal leaders
D) the dynamics of wild plant resources

Question 56

The transition from foraging to food production __________.

A) leads to higher mortality rates, poorer sanitation, and decreased life expectancies
B) is always accompanied by an immediate decrease in population density
C) was accomplished in one area of the world and diffused to other areas
D) caused mortality to decline and life expectancy to increase

Question 57

The change for high fertility rates and high mortality rates to low fertility rates and low mortality rates is called the __________.

A) roller-coaster theory
B) urbanization trend
C) demographic transition
D) socialization of vital rates

Question 58

Why do foraging societies sometimes resort to infanticide?

A) to engage in more frequent intercourse
B) to supplement scarce hunting resources
C) to reduce the effects of anticipated food shortages
D) to make sacrifices to their deities

Question 59

Populations of agrarian civilizations grew rapidly because of which of the following?

A) increased fertility rates
B) decreased infant mortality
C) declines in the spread of infectious diseases
D) overall increases in the standard of living

Question 60

Compare and contrast how foragers, pastoralists, and horticulturalists control population growth. Discuss the concept of carrying capacity as well as specific techniques used to manage fertility.