Course Introduction
Anthropological Theory
Exam Materials
Anthropological Theory explores the historical development and contemporary applications of key theoretical approaches within anthropology. The course examines major schools of thought including evolutionism, functionalism, structuralism, interpretive anthropology, and postmodernism tracing their emergence and impact on the discipline. Students will critically analyze how anthropologists have used theory to understand culture, society, identity, power, and change. By engaging with foundational texts and current debates, the course fosters an appreciation of how theory shapes research questions, methodologies, and interpretations in anthropological practice.
Recommended Textbook
Cultural Anthropology 9th Edition by Raymond Scupin
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18 Chapters
1080 Verified Questions
1080 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Introduction to Anthropology
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60 Verified Questions
60 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Popular perceptions and misperceptions of other cultures have often been based on
A) hypotheses
B) variables
C) ethnographies
D) ethnocentrism
Answer: D
Q2) Which of the following best summarizes the effect of the rift between anthropologists committed to either a humanistic or scientific approach?
A) It has fostered a richer understanding of human existence.
B) It has thwarted growth within the field.
C) It has forced humanistic anthropologists to employ the scientific method.
D) It has driven the field to become more sociological.
Answer: A
Q3) Historical linguistics has provided evidence to support which of the following?
A) Chinese speakers view the world differently than English speakers.
B) Native American populations originated in Asia.
C) Puerto Rican accents are different from Mexican accents.
D) Grammatical forms can differentiate socioeconomic groups.
Answer: B
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Chapter 2: Human Evolution
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Sample Questions
Q1) Archaeologists believe that the first humans came to the New World from
A) Asia
B) Australia
C) Europe
D) Africa
Answer: A
Q2) Scientific evidence indicates that the earliest hominins were fully bipedal.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) One of the most important tool types invented by Homo erectus was the
A) hammer stone
B) projectile point
C) grinding stone
D) hand ax
Answer: D
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Page 4
Chapter 3: Culture
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60 Verified Questions
60 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to Marvin Harris's hypothesis about pork prohibitions, traditional societies that keep and eat pigs __________.
A) have greater access to herbal medicines
B) are more likely to live in or near forests
C) probably originated in desert climates
D) bathe and clean them on a regular basis
Answer: B
Q2) Folkways and mores are two different types of norms.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Social learning is a process that can be observed in nonhuman creatures.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q4) According to Marvin Harris, the dietary practices of various cultures may be rooted in ecological conditions.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 4: Psychological and Cognitive Anthropology
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60 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Franz Boas had a guiding influence on Margaret Mead.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The classification of foods into categories of kosher (edible) and traif (not edible) is an example of __________.
A) preoperational reasoning
B) cognitive dissonance
C) binary opposition
D) ethnocentric enculturation
Q3) What are some of the most important methods of enculturation used in your own society? Give an example of how your own personality has been affected by enculturation. Conclude with a discussion of agency and the limits of enculturation in general as well as in your own experience.
Q4) Humans are considered to have no closed instincts because they __________.
A) react automatically to loud noises
B) cannot avoid instinctual behavior
C) learn new behaviors easily
D) are always looking for new experiences
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Chapter 5: Language
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60 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) A linguistic anthropologist interested in understanding what people convey through smiles in different cultures would be interested in the study of __________.
A) semantics
B) proxemics
C) phonemics
D) kinesics
Q2) Glottochronology is the study of the interrelationships among the vocal tract, glottis, larynx, and pharynx in the production of sound.
A)True
B)False
Q3) How do animal communication systems differ from human language and communication systems? Explain the features of human language that differentiate it from other forms of communication.
Q4) Most anthropologists maintain that language influences a person's thinking and worldview, but language does not determine thought.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 6: Anthropological Explanations
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Sample Questions
Q1) A major division in anthropology is between __________.
A) sociobiologists and sociolinguists
B) Marxists and capitalists
C) ethnographers and ethologists
D) materialists and culturalists
Q2) 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?
Q3) 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
Q4) 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.
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Page 8
Chapter 7: Analyzing Sociocultural Systems
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60 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Political systems with centralized bureaucratic institutions that establish power and authority over large populations in a specific territory are known as __________.
A) bands
B) tribes
C) chiefdoms
D) states
Q2) Cultural anthropologists use archival data to provide the historical context for the community or subjects they are studying.
A)True
B)False
Q3) When administering a questionnaire in a large society, an ethnographer generally
A) selects a sample of individuals that is representative of the larger population
B) chooses a few close informants to survey
C) hires graduate students to help reach every household
D) seeks help from local government census takers
Q4) What are the benefits and limitations of conducting cross-cultural research?
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9
Chapter 8: Environment, Subsistence, and Demography
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Sample Questions
Q1) Compare and contrast horticulture and intensive agriculture in terms of how the environment is used to meet subsistence needs. Illustrate with cross-cultural examples.
Q2) Hunting-and-gathering societies have always existed in marginal environments.
A)True
B)False
Q3) 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
Q4) 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
Q5) During the latter phase of the demographic transition, birth rates and mortality rates increase dramatically.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 9: Technology and Economies
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60 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The ownership of land in agricultural states became the primary basis for an individual's socioeconomic status.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The mobility of the pastoralist lifestyle required them to develop elaborate technologies for transporting and taking care of domesticated animals.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A decentralized form of political economy in which autonomous patrons own the land and demand tribute from those who provide agricultural or other labor is called a(n) __________.
A) landed system
B) peasant state
C) feudal system
D) homage state
Q4) How do the formalist and substantivist approaches understand economic systems? Analyze two cross-cultural economic examples in terms of these approaches.
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11
Chapter 10: Social Structure, The Family, Gender, and Age
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to sociobiologists, patriarchy in tribal societies is a consequence of what?
A) the scarcity of resources and the resulting dominance of males in warfare
B) a male supremacy complex found in all human societies
C) mythologies, beliefs, and ideologies that justify male domination
D) reproductive strategies in which male competition for females leads to conflict
Q2) As illustrated by the Natchez Indians of the Mississippi region, marriage in chiefdom societies often __________.
A) resulted in divorce because the couples were too tired and stressed from the daily obligations imposed on them by the chief
B) resulted in males marrying other males in order for them to gain higher rank and status in the society
C) provided a systematic form of social mobility, especially for women
D) lacked ritual, since marriages were not important to the social order of chiefdoms
Q3) Discuss the relationships among gender, subsistence, and family structure in agricultural states.
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Chapter 11: Politics, Warfare, and Law
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Sample Questions
Q1) Internalized norms based on a society's ethos are always followed.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Tribal societies rely on both formal courts and lawyers for internal conflict resolution.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Based on standardized procedures for dealing with civil and criminal offenses, the first known code of law was the __________.
A) Laws of Babylon
B) Precepts of Order
C) Code of Hammurabi
D) Civil Enactments of Order
Q4) Nationalistic wars are usually waged for ideological rather than economic reasons.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What is the difference between legitimate and illegitimate political power? Give an example of each.
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Page 13
Chapter 12: Religion and Aesthetics
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Sample Questions
Q1) Since individualistic religious practices and beliefs were deemed as threatening to the state, one of the major functions of priests was to standardize religious beliefs and practices for the society.
A)True
B)False
Q2) On the Northwest Coast, respected shamans with great spiritual power often surpassed high-ranking chiefs in the accumulation of material wealth.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Chiefs often maintained political legitimacy through rituals and religious beliefs.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What is the belief that spirits reside within all inorganic and organic materials called?
A) superstition
B) animism
C) dream-wishing
D) dualism
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Page 14
Chapter 13: Globalization, Culture, and Indigenous Societies
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to modernization theorists, the primary impediments to economic development are __________.
A) foreign investment and exchange
B) poor nutrition and health care
C) cultural values and traditionalism
D) international relief agencies
Q2) Given a choice between modernization theory and dependency theory, which model do you prefer to explain the existence of vast inequities between countries of the First World and the Third World? What are the strengths of the model you prefer? What are its weaknesses?
Q3) Christian missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands in the nineteenth century taught native children that their traditional cultural activities were __________.
A) gifts from God
B) to be honored and respected
C) barbaric and uncivilized
D) similar to those of the ancient Hebrews
Q4) Missionaries in Venezuela have helped preserve the Yanomamö culture.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 14: Globalization in Latin America,Africa, and the Caribbean
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the status of women in African societies? What are some of the differences in women's roles within urban and rural settings?
Q2) Boer settlers had their most intense conflicts with indigenous Zulu.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The Bantustan homelands in South Africa were created to __________.
A) return traditional lands to black tribes
B) increase the physical separation of blacks and whites
C) lay the foundations for independent African republics
D) exploit rich mineral deposits and construct factories
Q4) Led by Hernando Cortés, the Spanish were able to establish domination over the Aztec Empire in less than three years.
A)True
B)False
Q5) The term encomienda referred to the practice of __________.
A) granting a conquistador the right to Indian land, tribute, and labor
B) presenting Spanish nobility with native crafts and products
C) marrying into the upper classes of Aztec and Inca society
D) awarding 20 percent of all booty to the Spanish Crown
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Chapter 15: Globalization in the Middle East and Asia
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Sample Questions
Q1) The term for rural peasants in Egypt is fellaheen.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Name two of the European countries that participated in the colonization of Asia. For each, name one former colony and describe the nature of its agricultural exports under European rule. What are the effects of colonization that can still be seen in these countries today?
Q3) Historically, Afghanistan was a buffer zone between the Russian and British empires.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The wearing of the veil and traditional dress is often a political statement for Muslim women.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Mao Zedong's "Great Leap Forward" was successful at improving both rural health care and literacy.
A)True B)False
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Chapter 16: Ethnicity
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Sample Questions
Q1) The confusion between the concepts of "race" and "culture" has been a fundamental misconception in the Western worldview.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The primordialist model of ethnicity is particularly helpful for understanding which of the following?
A) the formation of new ethnic groups
B) folk categories of race and culture
C) changes in ethnic boundary markers
D) the persistent attachment to ethnic identity
Q3) The Hispanic and Latino populations of the American Southwest became minorities when __________.
A) Anglos rushed into the newly annexed territories in search of economic opportunities
B) Mexicans moved north fleeing the Spanish conquistadors
C) Native Americans intermarried with Spanish settlers
D) Anglos pushed the Hispanic and Latino populations west of the Mississippi River
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Chapter 17: Contemporary Global Trends
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Sample Questions
Q1) Western Samoans have received huge social and monetary benefits from multinational corporations wanting to exploit forests.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following countries is likely to have the lowest per capita energy consumption?
A) Sudan
B) Japan
C) Mexico
D) Canada
Q3) Separatist conflicts among various linguistic, ethnic, tribal, and religious groups in the former Soviet Union, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere are of no concern to peoples in the Western, industrialized nations because they are local conflicts that have no global implications.
A)True
B)False
Q4) In China, the government penalizes urban couples who have more than one child.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 18: Applied Anthropology
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to the research of Ellen Gruenbaum, some Sudanese women participated in female genital mutilation (FGM) because __________.
A) they thought it would protect them against rape
B) they were not aware of the medical dangers
C) they were suffering from a culture-specific disorder
D) they did not want to get married and have children
Q2) Which of the following did John Van Willigen and V. C. Channa recommend for decreasing the incidence of dowry death in India?
A) strengthening legislation that prohibits the institution of dowry
B) establishing an inheritance law in which women receive more than men
C) passing a requirement for universal marriage registration and licensing
D) changing the caste system to promote gender equality
Q3) Cultural relativism is the principle that cultures must be understood from the perspective of their own cultural norms, values, beliefs, and behaviors.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What is cultural resource management? Why is it important? Support your answer with specific examples.
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Page 20