Comparative Cultures Practice Questions
Course Introduction
Comparative Cultures is a course designed to explore the diverse beliefs, practices, values, and social norms of various global societies. Through an interdisciplinary approach, students examine historical and contemporary cultural expressions such as language, art, religion, family structures, and political systems. The course emphasizes critical thinking and empathy by analyzing similarities and differences between cultures, as well as the influence of cultural context on individual and collective behavior. Students gain a deeper understanding of globalization, cultural exchange, and the impact of intercultural interactions in shaping modern societies.
Recommended Textbook
Cultural Anthropology 1st Edition by Kenneth J. Guest
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17 Chapters
1120 Verified Questions
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Anthropology in a Global Age
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Sample Questions
Q1) What field of anthropology studies monkeys, apes, and other nonhuman primates?
A) evolutionary biology
B) paleoanthropology
C) paleoprimatology
D) primatology
E) sociobiology
Answer: D
Q2) We refer to changes in the way we think about how long something should take or how far away people are as:
A) flexible time scales.
B) uneven development.
C) key dynamics.
D) time-space compression.
E) technological innovation.
Answer: D
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Page 3
Chapter 2: Culture
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following anthropologists argued that power must be viewed as an aspect of all human relationships?
A) Margaret Mead
B) Henry Morgan
C) Eric Wolf
D) Clifford Geertz
E) Franz Boas
Answer: C
Q2) Which of the following statements about mental maps of reality is false?
A) Mental maps of reality consist of ideas or rules about how people should behave in particular situations or toward certain other people.
B) They help us navigate our experiences by organizing sensory data.
C) Mental maps of reality can be challenged and redrawn.
D) An example of a mental map of reality is the concept of time.
E) Mental maps classify reality and assign meaning to what has been classified.
Answer: A
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Chapter 3: Fieldwork and Ethnography
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Sample Questions
Q1) Compare Nancy Scheper-Hughes' early ethnographic fieldwork in Alto do Cruzeiro with her current research and work with Organs Watch. How has globalization affected her fieldwork?
Answer: Students should summarize Scheper-Hughes' earlier work in Alto do Cruzeiro study infant mortality patterns, and then describe her current work, which began in the same region as a response to local anxieties about illegal organ harvesting. They should further discuss how globalization has enabled a global trade in harvested organs.
Q2) In Horace Miner's interpretations of Nacirema culture, ________ are important ritual specialists.
A) kings and queens
B) teachers
C) physicians and dentists
D) actors
E) lawyers
Answer: C
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5
Chapter 4: Language
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Sample Questions
Q1) Based on what linguistic anthropologist David Harrison found in Asia, which of the following statements best describes how language shapes the idea of time in Tuva?
A) Tuvans are digital natives.
B) Words for time were not part of the focal vocabulary in Tuva.
C) Words for time and space are no longer known among people in Tuva.
D) While the future is seen as behind them, the past is seen as in front.
E) Like Americans, Tuvans see the future as in front of them and the past behind.
Q2) Linguistic anthropologists would label new words that have emerged during the digital age, such as mouse, modem, download, and email, as part of our generation's ________ vocabulary.
A) cultural
B) ancestral
C) emotional
D) tonal
E) focal
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Chapter 5: Human Origins
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Sample Questions
Q1) A group of related organisms that can interbreed and produce fertile, viable offspring are called a:
A) founding population.
B) phenotype.
C) species.
D) kinship group.
E) genetic drift.
Q2) Radiocarbon dating can be applied to:
A) stone tools.
B) stone of volcanic origin.
C) organic remains.
D) only dates earlier than 70,000 BP.
E) only dates later than 25,000 BP.
Q3) Gene migration is defined as:
A) production of new genes.
B) random loss of genes in a population.
C) differential reproduction success.
D) exchange of genes between populations.
E) increase of genetic diversity among groups.
Q4) Contrast the two theories on the ultimate fate of the Neandertals.
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Race and Racism
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Sample Questions
Q1) A historical term meant to belittle and vilify "mixed" marriages is:
A) alienation.
B) degradation.
C) maligning.
D) miscegenation.
E) motley.
Q2) Compare and contrast the concepts of individual racism with institutional racism. Provide examples from the class to support your points.
Q3) A set of ideas about a group of people, such as "All Irishmen are drunks who beat their wives" or "All Arabs are terrorists," that then makes it seem natural and normal to discriminate against them is referred to as:
A) group racism.
B) institutional racism.
C) eugenics.
D) racist ideology.
E) fascism.
Q4) Explain why geneticists state that dividing people into "races" by skin color is as logical as dividing them by earwax.
Q5) Identify three factors that determine race in the Dominican Republic.
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Chapter 7: Ethnicity and Nationalism
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Sample Questions
Q1) When one group of people claims a territory and tries to push out or kill another group of people who live there, this is known as:
A) domination.
B) ethnic cleansing.
C) ethnocide.
D) fascism.
E) removal.
Q2) Some ethnic groups in the United States have adopted certain parts of American culture but still maintain some parts of their distinct ethnic culture. This is referred to as:
A) biculturalism.
B) multiculturalism.
C) segregation.
D) separation.
E) variation.
Q3) In a brief essay, identify three ways that various immigrants from India have created a new and unique Indian American identity in the United States. Is this assimilation or multiculturalism, and why?
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9
Chapter 8: Gender
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Sample Questions
Q1) Analyze how idealized gender roles and attributes of both sexes are reflected in the sexual division of labor and jobs that adult men and women tend to pursue in the United States, and how this is tied to constructions of masculine and feminine gender norms and performance. Provide two examples for each gender.
Q2) Medical data indicate that ________ of individuals are born without the biological traits that make them easily classified biologically as male or female.
A) approximately 5 percent
B) more than 7 percent
C) less than 2 percent
D) approximately 10 percent
E) approximately 15 percent
Q3) The notion of appropriate male behavior in Mexico is changing, in part because more women are entering the paid workforce. Thinking like an anthropologist, consider how you would structure your fieldwork to explore this phenomenon. Be scientific and explain whether your research will be qualitative or quantitative and why, how you will prepare, what your hypothesis will be, and what strategies you will use.
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Chapter 9: Sexuality
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Sample Questions
Q1) In Nicaragua, machismo:
A) must be constantly performed to retain one's social status.
B) only affects social status when performed in the presence of women.
C) only affects social status when performed in the presence of other men.
D) is a status only available to men who have sex with women.
E) is an egalitarian social practice.
Q2) Compare and contrast gay and lesbian commitment ceremonies with the traditional "white wedding." How might the differences between these rituals be minimized by the legalization of same-sex marriage? In what ways are gay and lesbian commitment ceremonies both rituals of acceptance and resistance?
Q3) Geneticists have been able to successfully identify:
A) a "gay" and a "straight" gene.
B) clusters of "gay" and "straight genes," but not the interactions of those genes.
C) the "gay" gene but not the "straight" gene.
D) The "straight" gene but not the "gay gene."
E) no gene or cluster of genes that determines sexuality.
Q4) Define sexuality and, using a minimum of three examples from the text, describe the ways in which culture influences sexual beliefs and behaviors.
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Page 11
Chapter 10: Kinship, Family, and Marriage
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Sample Questions
Q1) The concept of kinship groups based chiefly on biological assumptions and the nuclear family consisting of solely a mother, a father, and their children is:
A) a nearly universal, cross-cultural understanding of kinship.
B) a Euro-American ideal.
C) a stable model that matches the lived experience of most Americans.
D) proven to be the best structure for society.
E) unfamiliar as a cultural icon.
Q2) Which of the following types of descent groups traces kinship through both the mother and the father?
A) ambilineal
B) unilineal
C) polylineal
D) bilineal
E) monolineal
Q3) Anthropologists argue that kinship is one of several ways in which individuals form groups. Name three other ways in which humans form groups and provide some concrete examples of each. Does kinship influence how these other groups are formed? Why or why not?
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Chapter 11: Class and Inequality
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Sample Questions
Q1) The unequal distribution of a society's resources within a class system typically:
A) involves moving surpluses steadily downward into the hands of the poor.
B) involves moving surpluses steadily upward into the hands of the elite.
C) involves sharing of resources through random lottery.
D) is not intersected by race and gender.
E) does not affect individuals' life chances.
Q2) Class is a topic that is not commonly discussed among most people in the United States, and yet it is a system of stratification that continues to affect peoples' daily lives. How often and in what context do you talk about class issues with family and friends? In what class position would you classify yourself and your family? How do you know what category to use to identify your class position? Does your class position differ from that of your parents or grandparents? Why or why not? Does your class position differ from that of your friends? Why or why not? What types of efforts do you make to increase your social mobility, and do you think the efforts will indeed help you increase your class position at some point in your lifetime? Given what you know about your own class position, why do you think that class is not commonly talked about in U.S. society? What other types of social stratification are more commonly discussed in public and how might they be drawing attention away from class issues?
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Page 13
Chapter 12: The Global Economy
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to the author, what conditions led to the emergence of dependency theory?
A) African scholars argued that industrialized countries were using the land and rain in East Africa to grow crops for export.
B) Anthropologists observed that inadequate natural resources made former colonies across the globe dependent on help from industrialized nations.
C) Latin American scholars observed that the global economy was structured to extract resources from less developed nations and transfer them to industrialized nations.
D) European scholars argued that flows of migrants from the global North to the global South made Europe dependent on immigrants as a labor source.
E) Former colonies became self-sufficient and did not experience underdevelopment.
Q2) Explain the controversies associated with neoliberal policies. Identify two positives and two negatives of neoliberalism discussed in the text. What is the reasoning behind structural adjustment policies? Use two examples from Jamaica to discuss problems associated with structural adjustment.
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14
Chapter 13: Migration
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Sample Questions
Q1) Scholars call the generation of migrants who left their home countries as adults the ________ generation.
A) first
B) second
C) "lost"
D) "1.5"
E) "motivation"
Q2) Economic resources sent back to countries of origin play an important role in:
A) supporting families and stimulating economic growth in local communities.
B) maintaining matriarchal households.
C) specifying who and who cannot migrate.
D) contributing to the tax base of destination countries.
E) finance health insurance exchanges for nonmigrants.
Q3) What are the unique challenges and opportunities faced by what the author calls the "1.5 generation"? Define this term, and compare and contrast how the experience of this generation compares to first- and second-generation migrants. Be sure to use concrete examples to explain how these generations become part of U.S. culture.
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15
Chapter 14: Politics and Power
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Sample Questions
Q1) Groups of indigenous people like the Maasai, who live outside the direct control of the government of Tanzania and have had to form their own nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and other political organizations to fight against the state's efforts to act as though they did not exist, are today known as:
A) tribes.
B) states.
C) groups.
D) chiefdoms.
E) bands.
Q2) Modern states play a central role in shaping what happens in every part of the world today. Discuss the aspects of the state that make it the dominant form of political organization in the world today.
Q3) The contested social process through which a civil society organizes for the production of military violence is known as: A) arming.
B) biliousness.
C) fomenting.
D) imperialism.
E) militarization.
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Page 16
Chapter 15: Religion
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Sample Questions
Q1) French sociologist ________ viewed religion as ultimately something practiced with others and thus a social practice rather than a private or individual one.
A) Emile Durkheim
B) Max Weber
C) Karl Marx
D) Clifford Geertz
E) E. E. Evans-Pritchard
Q2) Which of the following anthropologists developed the theory of cultural materialism, which argued that material conditions determine patterns of social organization?
A) Marvin Harris
B) Karl Marx
C) Max Weber
D) Emile Durkheim
E) Victor Turner
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Page 17
Chapter 16: Health and Illness
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Sample Questions
Q1) What was the focus of Khiara Bridges' research in the New York City women's health clinic? How did the composition of the patient population compare to that of the medical staff? What noticeable differences did she observe, if any, in the treatment that patients received? What, if anything, did she attribute any disparities to? Specifically, how did members of the medical staff view their patients, and how did she interpret these differences as creating disparities across race lines?
Q2) What is biomedicine, and how do the practitioners view and treat diseases? Discuss two criticisms that anthropologists have about the European biases in the model relative to ethnocentric views about non-Western populations.
Q3) Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Margaret Lock reported a case where, after hearing the story of a woman under tremendous personal stress, medical students:
A) advised her to take an aspirin.
B) suggested she take a vacation.
C) diagnosed a brain tumor.
D) asked what the real causes of her pain were.
E) attempted to analyze her illness narrative.
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Page 18
Chapter 17: Art and Media
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Sample Questions
Q1) Consider the global trade of West African "wood" and "mud" artwork. Are these objects "authentic"?
Q2) In the late twentieth century, ________ emerged as a dominant form of global communication.
A) telephones
B) the Internet
C) books
D) letters
E) newspapers
Q3) The author writes that the marketing of art created by the Pintupi of Western Australia:
A) involves stressing that the art shows native ingenuity in the twenty-first century.
B) stresses the authenticity of these designs through their link to the Dreaming.
C) informs tourists that this culture will disappear if foreigners don't purchase the art.
D) appeals to eco-friendly consumers by stressing the use of trees from sustainable forests.
E) has created considerable differences of wealth within the Pintupi community.
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