Anthropological Theory Test
Questions
Course Introduction
Anthropological Theory explores the major schools of thought and central debates that have shaped the discipline of anthropology from its origins to the present day. The course examines foundational paradigms such as evolutionism, functionalism, structuralism, and symbolic anthropology, as well as contemporary approaches including postmodernism and feminist anthropology. Students critically engage with key theorists, concepts, and methodologies to understand how anthropologists interpret human culture, society, and diversity. By analyzing case studies and theoretical texts, learners gain the analytical tools needed to evaluate and apply theoretical perspectives within anthropological research.
Recommended Textbook
Cultural Anthropology A Global Perspective 8th Edition by Raymond Scupin
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1138 Verified Questions
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Chapter 1: Introduction to Anthropology
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Sample Questions
Q1) An example of "applied anthropology" might be:
A) a study of genetic differences between gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans
B) an archaeological dig to recover information on long-distance trade between ancient Maya cities
C) research on how to write a computer manual in an indigenous language of Papua New Guinea
D) reconstructing the kinship terminology utilized in Japan during the 12th century
Answer: C
Q2) Physical anthropologists who study variation within and among human populations would be interested in questions such as:
A) Why do most Africans have dark skin?
B) What did the civilizations of Egypt and Greece have in common with one another?
C) Why are French and Italian similar to one another?
D) Are there similarities in marriage customs between Muslims and Jews?
Answer: A
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Chapter 2: Human Evolution
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Sample Questions
Q1) Origin myths account for the ways in which supernatural forces and beings fashioned the world and all the living things.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) Cro-Magnon people were the first humans to domesticate cattle and sheep.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) "Lucy" is an early hominid known scientifically as Australopithecus afarensis.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q4) The first hominid to take advantage of the controlled usage of fire was:
A) Homo sapiens
B) Australopithecus afarensis
C) Homo erectus
D) Homo habilis
E) Australopithecus boisei
Answer: C
Page 4
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Chapter 3: Culture
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Sample Questions
Q1) Culture consists of the shared practices and understandings within a society.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) Norms are:
A) prohibitions against a particular kind of behavior
B) values that are accepted by every human society
C) a given society's rules for right and wrong behavior
D) individuals who look like the majority of people
Answer: C
Q3) Folkways and mores are two different types of norms.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q4) All human societies share the same basic values.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Page 5
Chapter 4: The Process of Enculturation: Psychological and Cognitive Anthropology
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Sample Questions
Q1) The hijras of India are anatomically male at the time of their birth. However, after having their genitals surgically removed, they dress like females and engage in certain male-only activities like smoking water pipes. In Indian society, they are considered to be:
A) social deviants
B) men
C) women
D) a third gender
Q2) Evolutionary psychologists emphasize innate human predispositions.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Cross-cultural studies of human sexual desire have revealed that:
A) in all cultures, adults seek to engage in regular sexual activity
B) sexual desire and sexual activity are strongly conditioned by cultural practices
C) there are universal taboos against premarital sex
D) human sexual desire is greatest among people who live in the tropics
Q4) Humans cannot ignore or override their basic, inborn drives.
A)True
B)False
6
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Chapter 5: Language
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Sample Questions
Q1) Anthropologists use the ethnosemantic approach to study how different societies understand and classify everyday objects like animals, plants, and food.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Linguistic anthropologists find that people who are forced to abandon their native language and culture:
A) begin to lose their self-esteem
B) all speak English.
C) are better off socially and economically
D) easily regain both in 100 years
Q3) Linguistic variations within a single language such as differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, or syntax are termed dialects.
A)True
B)False
Q4) According to Herbert Terrace's research, chimpanzees are highly intelligent animals that can learn many signs, but they cannot understand syntax.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 6: Anthropological Explanations
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Sample Questions
Q1) An important premise of current Marxist anthropology is a rejection of the unilineal model of evolution.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Can ethnocentrism be an adaptive strategy for a society to take? Or should ethnocentrism be avoided at all costs?
Q3) Nineteenth century theories of "unilineal evolution" proposed that:
A) modern humans were descended from ape-like creatures
B) human existence is characterized by continuous progress towards civilization
C) Egypt was the source of all civilizations
D) the Bible was the best reference on the human past
Q4) 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
Q5) Explain how postmodernism has affected anthropological explanation. What is the postmodern critique of ethnography?
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Chapter 7: Analyzing Sociocultural Systems
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Sample Questions
Q1) It has been argued by anthropologists such as Leslie White and Julian Steward that technology, as opposed to values, emotions, or social organization, is the basic and primary source of sociocultural change.
A)True
B)False
Q2) During your lifetime you will probably be a member of two families, the family of orientation (the family into which you were born and enculturated) and the family of __________ (the family in which you will have or adopt children).
A) acculturation
B) deculturation
C) procreation
D) life
E) socialization
Q3) A major goal of most anthropological studies of religion is to determine the "truth" or "falsity" of particular religious beliefs so that the truth about the supernatural can be discovered.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What are the benefits and limitations of conducting cross-cultural research?
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Chapter 8: Band Societies
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Sample Questions
Q1) A cross cousin is the offspring of one's father's sister or one's mother's brother.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Since band societies are egalitarian, the leaders of bands:
A) must lead by personal influence and persuasion rather than coercion
B) must lead by strictly obeying the rules and laws set down by the band council
C) must use force and physical threats to achieve political power
D) usually employ and maintain a military or police force that enforces the customs and laws
E) must lead by intimidation, coercion, and deception
Q3) What types of things can we learn from studying hunter-gatherer societies that might help us understand and interpret life in industrial societies today?
Q4) Social control in forager societies is maintained by a standing police force that wields so much power that most individuals simply do not even think about committing a crime.
A)True
B)False
Q5) If you were a hunter-gatherer, where would you prefer to live and why?
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Chapter 9: Tribes
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Sample Questions
Q1) Levi-Strauss has used the term "generalized exchange" to refer to a cycle of marital exchange in which, among Lineages A, B, and C:
A) men of each lineage always marry within their lineage
B) men of Lineages A and B always marry women from Lineage C
C) Lineage B always gives women to Lineage A, but takes its wives from Lineage C
D) men of each lineage always marry outside of their lineage
Q2) Property rights in tribal societies are usually invested in family and other kinship groupings.
A)True
B)False
Q3) When a society is divided into two parts, each is called a moiety.
A)True
B)False
Q4) One of the most significant causes of warfare among tribal horticulturalist societies is:
A) revenge for homicides and other crimes
B) competition for potential wives
C) conflicts over ideological differences
D) acquisition of land
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Chapter 10: Chiefdoms
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Sample Questions
Q1) Regional symbiosis:
A) occurs when the Kula Ring joins the Potlatch in Tahiti
B) is a term that refers to the type of language that was developed so people from different chiefdoms could understand each other when they traded goods
C) occurs when groups of people who live in different ecological habitats establish mutual dependency by exchanging their locally obtained products
D) refers to the different levels of legal structure (police, judges, juries) that exist in any chiefdom society
E) is the "symbol" of a chiefdom similar to a flag representing a modern nation
Q2) What role did kinship and descent play in the social structure of a chiefdom?
Q3) Archaeologist Timothy Earle suggests that the key factor in the evolution of chiefdoms was:
A) regional symbiosis managed by descent groups
B) ceremonial trade and reciprocal exchange
C) control by individuals over resources and human labor
D) the storage and redistribution of food
Q4) Describe the social structure of chiefdoms. What were the specific social rankings and how were these determined?
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Page 12
Chapter 11: Agricultural States
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Sample Questions
Q1) State organized rituals were also referred to as:
A) rites of legitimation
B) universalistic religions
C) ecclesiastical religions
D) religious traditions
Q2) Review at least four reasons for state-level society collapse. Which do you think is the most rational? Explain why.
Q3) Because of the egalitarian nature of agricultural states, racial and ethnic stratification did not occur.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Why do you think marriages of the elite were frequently endogamous, while peasants generally married outside their extended families or large kin groups?
Q5) The term "civilization" usually implies societies with a complex division of labor, with economic roles other than those pertaining to food production.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 12: Industrial States
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Sample Questions
Q1) is an economic system in which the state (ideally representative of the people) owns the basic means of production.
A) Capitalism
B) Idealism
C) Socialism
D) Futurism
Q2) Since social class in the United States is an achieved status, factors such as family background, the economy, and ethnic background do not have any influence on social mobility.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A market economy is one in which the value of goods is determined by supply and demand.
A)True
B)False
Q4) One of the major consequences of the Industrial Revolution was a dramatic decrease in population.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What are some of the unique characteristics of Japanese industrial corporations?
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Globalization, Culture, and Indigenous Societies
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Sample Questions
Q1) Using one example of each, compare and contrast a First World, a Second World, and Third World country with one another. What would need to happen in order for your Third World example to become a member of the First World?
Q2) The term "Second World" is used to refer to:
A) modern, industrialized nation-states
B) what used to be called the Soviet Union and other communist countries
C) undeveloped, nonindustrialized countries
D) traditional, pre-state societies affected by contact with the modern world
Q3) Revitalization movements can take the form of violent military resistance.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Colin Turnbull examined two cases of African foragers who have faced decimation through forced cultural change. These were the Yanamamö and the San.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Rates of alcoholism among the Ju/'hoansi or San have increased as a result of wage labor.
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) Haciendas in the Spanish colonies and fazendas in Brazil were:
A) large-scale plantations
B) prison camps
C) mining towns
D) military bases
Q2) Although both Mexico and Venezuela are oil-producing nations, the standard of living in each of these countries is still well below that of the U.S. or most European countries for most of the population. What do you see as the most important factors responsible for these differences?
Q3) Catholicism was predisposed to accommodate elements of the pagan traditions of the Americas.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Women in rural Africa tend to be the poorest people on the world's poorest continent.
A)True
B)False
Q5) The French were the first Europeans to engage in slave trade in West Africa.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 15: Globalization in the Middle East and Asia
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Sample Questions
Q1) Most of the problems experienced in the Middle East and Asia today are the result of:
A) traditional village economic systems
B) the legacy of ancient agricultural states
C) the incompatibility of different Eastern religions
D) global industrialization and exploitation by core societies
Q2) The monarchy of Thailand was successful in:
A) avoiding all Western influence
B) adopting some Western innovations and playing the British against the French C) developing an exclusive trade relationship with the British Empire D) protecting neighboring countries from colonization
Q3) The colonization of China in the 19<sup>th</sup> century was facilitated by the desire of the government to import Western goods and technology.
A)True B)False
Q4) The Philippines were colonized by both Spain and the United States. A)True B)False
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Chapter 16: Race and Ethnicity
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Sample Questions
Q1) Racist views during World War II were responsible for:
A) arrest of Communist Party members
B) renaming of towns with German names
C) deportation of Italian Americans
D) internment of Japanese Americans
Q2) Two-thirds of African Americans subsist at or below the poverty level.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The demand for cultural pluralism in the United States surfaced as a strong political force in the:
A) 1800s
B) 1920s
C) 1960s
D) 1990s
Q4) The majority of legal immigrants admitted to the United States in the early 1980s came from:
A) Asia
B) Latin America
C) Africa
D) Europe
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Chapter 17: Contemporary Global Trends
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Sample Questions
Q1) Many scientists argue that the increased levels of carbon dioxide that are produced by the burning of fossil fuels and the tropical rainforest will create a(n) , in which the carbon dioxide will trap the heat from the sun and prevent it from radiating back into space.
A) ultraviolet leach
B) greenhouse effect
C) biotechnological loop
D) circular biome cycle
E) biodiversity transition cycle
Q2) Give an example from the text of how multinational corporations that exploit the natural resources of a developing society have maximized their profits but not enhanced the local economy in the long term.
Q3) The one-child policy in China has been:
A) effective at reducing the birthrate
B) useless at reversing trends of runaway population growth
C) most accepted in agricultural areas
D) accepted without protest by both urban and rural populations
Q4) What is the global economy? What types of changes have occurred in the world recently that are related to the globalization of the world economy?
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Chapter 18: Applied Anthropology
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Sample Questions
Q1) Is it possible to understand the values and worldview of another culture and not accept all of their practices and standards? In other words, can one be a cultural relativist and not an ethical relativist at the same time?
Q2) When an archaeological site is destroyed, it can often be replaced or renewed.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What is medical anthropology? What are some of the things that medical anthropologists do?
Q4) Applied anthropologists can serve as consultants to government organizations, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID).
A)True
B)False
Q5) Universal human rights have been spread through the process of globalization and are mostly based on the United States Declaration of Independence.
A)True
B)False
Q6) What is cultural resource management?
Q7) Is there such a thing as universal human rights?
Page 20
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