Contemporary Issues in Anthropology
Exam Answer Key
Course Introduction
Contemporary Issues in Anthropology explores current debates, challenges, and developments in the field of anthropology, analyzing how global trends, technological advancements, and sociopolitical changes impact human societies and cultures. The course encourages students to critically examine topics such as globalization, migration, identity, health, environmental change, and indigenous rights from an anthropological perspective. Through case studies, scholarly readings, and collaborative discussions, students develop a nuanced understanding of how anthropologists engage with and contribute to solutions for pressing societal issues in diverse cultural contexts.
Recommended Textbook
Essentials of Cultural Anthropology 2nd Edition by Kenneth J. Guest
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15 Chapters
979 Verified Questions
979 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Anthropology in a Global Age
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65 Verified Questions
65 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) There is a huge inflow of refugees from the wars in the Middle East to parts of Europe and Scandinavia. What kind of anthropologist would probably offer the most useful input to the politicians making decisions about resettlement programs?
A) physical anthropologist
B) cultural anthropologist
C) paleoanthropologist
D) sociolinguist
Answer: B
Q2) When companies move their production facilities around the world to take advantage of cheaper labor and lower taxes, what do anthropologists call this?
A) ethnology
B) increasing migration
C) time-space compression
D) flexible accumulation
Answer: D
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Chapter 2: Culture
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65 Verified Questions
65 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Popular American discourse often assigns biology-and usually genes-the primary role in determining who we are. What do anthropologists argue regarding the nature versus nurture debate surrounding who we are and how we behave? What evidence do anthropologists have to substantiate their argument?
Answer: Students must demonstrate competence in distinguishing between the biology and culture arguments regarding human identity and behavior. They must identify the argument by anthropologists for the strong influence that culture has on human experience and provide at least one example of evidence anthropologists use to substantiate this, such as the variety that exists across cultural groups even though human genetic codes are 99.9 percent identical.
Q2) Which of the following is defined as the ability to create consent and agreement within a population, sometimes unconsciously, by shaping what people think is normal, natural, and possible?
A) the culture of consumerism
B) coercion
C) enculturation
D) hegemony
Answer: D
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Chapter 3: Fieldwork and Ethnography
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65 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Discuss Horace Miner's article "Body Rituals among the Nacirema." What is the subject of the ethnography? What was Miner's purpose in writing it, and how did he approach that purpose?
Answer: Horace Miner's "Body Rituals among the Nacirema" is a description of typical personal care practices of Americans, presented as exotic and unfamiliar rituals. Miner's descriptions of the Nacirema are intended to make the strange seem familiar and the familiar strange, and to challenge the reader's assumptions and ethnocentrism.
Q2) Compare Nancy Scheper-Hughes's 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's earlier work in Alto do Cruzeiro studying 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 and also allowed Scheper-Hughes to conduct research around the world (traveling to other communities and collaborating with others around the world).
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Chapter 4: Language
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58 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of these provides archaeological evidence for the origins of human language?
A) fossilized brain casts of Neandertals that show the anatomical features for speech
B) existence of the FOXP2 gene, which is also found in chimpanzees
C) careful study of nonhuman primate sounds and gestures
D) the idea that different languages create different ways of thinking
Q2) Imagine you are on a trip throughout South America. You speak Spanish pretty well, but have a hard time understanding Portuguese. However, as you reach the border of Colombia and begin to cross into Brazil, you realize that you are still able to understand many of the native speakers better than you expected. What linguistic phenomenon are you experiencing?
A) the language continuum
B) code switching
C) lexicon
D) prestige language
Q3) What are the building blocks of language? Describe the elements that descriptive linguists use to analyze systems of language. What is the role of syntax and grammar in putting these building blocks together?
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Chapter 5: Race and Racism
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60 Verified Questions
60 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) What example does Jonathan Marks use as a useful way to consider the inherent problem of racially dividing people?
A) Doctors sorting according to brain size.
B) Children sorting according to block size.
C) Anthropologists sorting according to height.
D) Coaches sorting according to athletic prowess.
Q2) While health, education, decent housing, and employment are something that most of us would agree are fundamental to all people, what is a primary reason that these have historically been denied to many people in the United States?
A) white privilege
B) intersectionality
C) microaggressions
D) genotype
Q3) In Brazil, race is not merely a matter of skin color but also includes consideration of what?
A) Age and marital status
B) marital status and children
C) job status and spousal status
D) wealth and education
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Page 7
Chapter 6: Ethnicity and Nationalism
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Sample Questions
Q1) Carlos Murphy is from an Irish Mexican family, and he rides with pride on the Sons of Erin float in the St. Patrick's Day parade and drinks horchata with his Mexican relatives the next day. In these two different ethnic activities, Carlos is:
A) demonstrating a rigid concept of self.
B) applying situational negotiation of identity.
C) acting as an identity entrepreneur.
D) displaying his citizenship.
Q2) Traditionally, in order to be Jewish, a person must have a Jewish mother, follow the Jewish religion, and abide by kosher food limitations. Although they are not ironclad, these customs set "traditional" Jewish people apart from others. What concept does this serve to illustrate?
A) ethnic boundary markers
B) ethnic-making projects
C) socially significant traits
D) religious determinism
Q3) Define ethnic cleansing versus genocide and give an example of each to illustrate your answer.
Q4) Explain what is meant when we say that a nation is an imagined community, and give an example.
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Chapter 7: Gender
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60 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Define the concept of intersex, and explain how physicians' attitudes toward children born intersex have changed in recent decades in parallel with changes in attitudes toward sexuality.
Q2) What does Carla Freeman's research on women's participation in the industrialized labor force in Barbados indicate?
A) that women are victims of an exploitative work environment
B) that women cannot resist male dominance once they enter the global economy
C) that women are not simply victims in the practices of flexible accumulation
D) that the exploitation of women increased as women asserted a different status
Q3) A United Nations survey recently found that less than 22 percent of the world's parliamentarians are women. What does this suggest about the role of gender in establishing and maintaining power dynamics?
A) Gender plays a key role in power relationships.
B) Power is based on biological characteristics.
C) Gender is less important than other factors when establishing powerful leaders.
D) Power is unrelated to both sex and gender.
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Chapter 8: Sexuality
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Sample Questions
Q1) Where does the dual categorization of sexuality as either homosexual or heterosexual come from?
A) the early Christian church
B) Western cultural history
C) near eastern theology
D) ancient Greece
Q2) For the Victorians, masturbation was a form of self-abuse and seen as dangerous. Why was this particular sexual activity strongly condemned?
A) It was known to be a vector for sexually transmitted infections.
B) Masturbation was considered a form of homosexuality.
C) Many people felt it was not actually pleasurable.
D) Sex was for procreation only and masturbation did not result in children.
Q3) How do the 'yan daudu in Nigeria see homosexual behavior?
A) It is both incompatible with marrying women and with their Muslim faith.
B) It is compatible with both marrying women and their Muslim faith.
C) It is incompatible with marrying women but is compatible with their Muslim faith.
D) It is compatible with marrying women but is incompatible with their Muslim faith.
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Chapter 9: Kinship, Family, and Marriage
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67 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Bridewealth is prevalent in many African societies and parts of the Middle East and frequently means that the groom's family gives cattle, cash, or other goods to the family of the bride-to-be. What is the goal of bridewealth?
A) It stabilizes the marriage through establishment of mutual, vested interest.
B) It creates a sense of obligation on the part of the groom's family.
C) It helps ensure the newlyweds' financial success.
D) It can force the bride to be a good homemaker.
Q2) In a matrilineal descent group, continued membership in the same family group is passed down through which member?
A) father
B) mother
C) uncle
D) aunt
Q3) Ambilineal descent groups such as Samoans, Maori, and Hawaiians are sometimes referred to as what kind of descent groups?
A) unilineal
B) polylineal
C) cognatic
D) monolineal
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Page 11
Chapter 10: Class and Inequality
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to Karl Marx, the capitalist class increase their wealth through:
A) intense competition.
B) extracting surplus labor value from the workers.
C) selling labor to the bourgeoisie.
D) meritocracy.
Q2) Which of the following members of a ranked society may not accumulate great wealth but enjoy high prestige?
A) women
B) elders
C) men
D) chiefs
Q3) What do we call the movement, both upward and downward, of one's class position in a society?
A) social inertia
B) social achievement
C) social reproduction
D) social mobility
Q4) How does Pem Davidson Buck's work on the history of poor white people in rural Kentucky reflect how income and wealth are affected by other forms of social stratification?
Page 12
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Chapter 11: The Global Economy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Describe the "foraging" adaptive strategy (i.e. the means of obtaining resources, settlement patterns, and division of labor.) When did humans first use this adaptive strategy? How many humans rely on it today? Where are the primary locations where it is practiced today?
Q2) What do anthropologists call a cultural adaptation to the environment that enables groups to use available resources to satisfy their needs and thrive?
A) an economy
B) capitalism
C) environmental anthropology
D) civilization
Q3) You decide to move to Tokyo, Japan because you were offered the opportunity to make a fantastic salary as an English teacher. This opportunity is an example of a: A) push.
B) bridge.
C) pull.
D) barrier.
Q4) What does the author mean by "bridges and barriers"? Give two examples each of potential bridges and barriers.
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Page 13
Chapter 12: Politics and Power
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Sample Questions
Q1) Give an example of an alternative legal structure. Explain how it was used to circumvent state power
Q2) Catherine Lutz warns that, if left unchecked, militarization: A) can shape other cultural institutions to its own ends.
B) may eliminate civil society.
C) will encourage the production of bullets, bombs, tanks, planes, and missiles.
D) will make organizing civil society for war an uncontested process.
Q3) The political-economic context in which international financial institutions pressure states to adopt neoliberal economic policies has produced a flourishing of ________.
A) progress and development
B) civil society
C) national sovereignty
D) state social spending
Q4) What do anthropologists call a small, kinship-based group of foragers who move over a particular territory?
A) group
B) band
C) tribe
D) chiefdom
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Chapter 13: Religion
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64 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) The author describes his own work in Chinatown and the appearance of a temple used by the Chinese religious communities there. People were observed praying at the altar and conducting themselves in a manner consistent with a religious site. What other function does the temple serve that is not religious?
A) human trafficking drop point
B) informal barter market
C) dance hall
D) information exchange
Q2) Anthropologist Marvin Harris suggested that human culture is a response to the practical problems of earthly existence, arguing that society is shaped by:
A) material conditions.
B) ritual processes.
C) the relationships between religion and power.
D) religious beliefs.
Q3) What did anthropologist George Gmelch note about baseball as an activity?
A) It was rife with Christian worship.
B) It was rife with skeptics.
C) It was rife with magic.
D) It was rife with religious tenets.
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Page 15
Chapter 14: Health, Illness, and the Body
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78 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Emily spent her summer vacation in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she got plastic surgery for a fraction of what it would cost in the United States. This is an example of:
A) medical pluralism.
B) medical migration.
C) medical anthropology.
D) medical ecology.
Q2) Laurent Pordié and Nomad RSI, a French NGO, helped local amchis:
A) to grow and distribute medicinal plants to distant villages and establish a school to train new practitioners.
B) promote their products in alternative market for alternative cures that is growing in Europe and North America.
C) to cooperate with the Indian government to get modern medicine to remote Himalayan villages.
D) to treat victims of military violence.
Q3) What is biomedicine, and how do its practitioners view and treat diseases? Discuss two criticisms that anthropologists have about the European biases in the model.
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16
Chapter 15: Art and Media
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Sample Questions
Q1) You are an anthropologist studying line-dancing culture in the southern United States. You study groups of people who all move, shout, and sing in synchronized groups according to what the music is doing. What might you label this kind of music?
A) musical power
B) ethnomusic
C) kinetic music
D) kinetic orality
Q2) What is reflected in decisions about what is displayed as fine art?
A) wealth and power stratification
B) egalitarianism
C) artistic skill and prowess
D) gender equality
Q3) West African art traders often rely on a network of what?
A) relatives who are able to provide false credentials for the artists entering the country
B) fictive kin who may offer a place to stay and advice
C) tourists who have already purchased all the pieces they want
D) businesspeople traveling between West Africa and the United States who are trying to earn extra money
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