Cultural Anthropology Exam Practice Tests
Course Introduction
Cultural Anthropology explores the diverse ways in which humans create, understand, and navigate their social worlds. Through the study of culture, ritual, language, kinship, religion, and social organization, students will gain insight into the vast range of human experience across time and place. The course emphasizes critical thinking about how cultures adapt, change, and interact, as well as the methods anthropologists use to conduct ethnographic research and engage with ethical issues in the field. By examining both familiar and unfamiliar societies, students will develop a deeper appreciation for cultural diversity and the processes that shape human behavior and belief.
Recommended Textbook
Essentials of Cultural Anthropology 2nd Edition by Kenneth J. Guest
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979 Verified Questions
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Chapter 1: Anthropology in a Global Age
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Sample Questions
Q1) Understanding miscommunications between men and women resulting from their differing use of language would demand a close examination of the cultural context of language. This would be the work of what type of anthropologist?
A) physical anthropologist
B) sociolinguist
C) historic linguist
D) descriptive linguist
Answer: B
Q2) Both historic archaeologists and prehistoric archaeologists study the past through the analysis of artifacts. What do historic archeologists have access to that prehistoric archaeologists do not?
A) larger numbers of artifacts
B) written records
C) works of art
D) burial sites
Answer: B
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3
Chapter 2: Culture
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Sample Questions
Q1) Clifford Geertz argued that every cultural action is more than the action itself. It also has deeper meaning, subject to interpretation. What key idea in anthropology did this important theoretical idea help promote?
A) Cultures arise from different causes, not uniform processes.
B) Symbols are a crucial means of understanding other cultures.
C) Balinese culture holds the key to how we might understand all other cultures.
D) Enculturation shapes sexual behavior.
Answer: B
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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4
Chapter 3: Fieldwork and Ethnography
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Sample Questions
Q1) The roots of cultural anthropology and ethnographic fieldwork lie in:
A) early biological models.
B) modern philosophical debates.
C) turn-of-the-century demographic trends.
D) late nineteenth-century globalization.
Answer: D
Q2) Attempts to document Native American cultures that were devastated by the westward expansion of settlers is called salvage ethnography. This method involves:
A) rapid gathering of available material and key interviews.
B) rapid assessment of local conditions and detailed interviews.
C) observing many participants over a long period of time.
D) collecting only material goods that were considered trash.
Answer: A
Q3) Define zeros and explain their significance for ethnographers.
Answer: Zeros are the elements of a story or picture that are not told or seen; they are key details omitted from the conversation. This omission offers insight into which topics are too sensitive to discuss publicly.
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Chapter 4: Language
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Q1) Linguistic anthropologists have shown that languages are disappearing at an unprecedented rate. Many argue that efforts should be made to preserve these endangered languages by documenting their lexicon and grammar. Why are anthropologists interested in preserving languages? Do you agree with these efforts? Why or why not? Which types of knowledge are embedded in language that might make them worthwhile to preserve? What are some of the techniques or strategies that have been used to either preserve or revitalize less-prominent languages? Discuss two examples where anthropologists have been involved in preserving endangered languages, and reflect on how information technology may be used in language revitalization.
Q2) A historical linguist would be most likely to study:
A) a nonstandard variation of a language that is particular to a specific region.
B) the development of language over time, including its changes and variations.
C) the way that linguistic variants alternate back and forth, depending on the context.
D) the way that variation in language appears gradually over distance between places.
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6
Chapter 5: Race and Racism
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Sample Questions
Q1) Explain what is meant by the concept of "white privilege."
Q2) Maria Kromidas's work in New York City schools reveals that children are creating a "new" racial category based on the post-September 11 media stories they receive. In this particular category, people are categorized by what factors?
A) foreign, strange, and Muslim
B) dark-skinned, Muslim, and wealthy
C) Muslim, Arabic, and different
D) foreign, dark-skinned, and poor
Q3) Explain how the idea of "white" or "whiteness" changed over time in the United States.
Q4) Explain the concept of racialization and how it applies to Middle Eastern people in the United States. Why is this process reflected in the New York school system as studied by Maria Kromidas?
Q5) A primary difference between the early census process and the census of 2010 was the:
A) ability to self-select racial category.
B) inclusion of "blurriness" as a racial category.
C) elimination of the racial category.
D) number of racial category choices available.
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Chapter 6: Ethnicity and Nationalism
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Sample Questions
Q1) Compare how and why ethnic-making projects in Rwanda and Bosnia have given rise to conflict.
Q2) What do anthropologists call a story that is told about the founding and history of a particular group to reinforce a common sense of identity?
A) diaspora
B) folktale
C) origin myth
D) history
Q3) What is the primary difference between assimilation and multiculturalism?
A) Assimilation is the same thing as multiculturalism.
B) Assimilation is a fully voluntary process.
C) Assimilation means preserving ethnic identity.
D) Assimilation implies a loss of ethnic identity.
Q4) 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?
Q5) In a brief essay, compare and contrast how the Bafokeng have formed corporations to achieve specific goals. Use specific examples from the class to illustrate your answer.
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Chapter 7: Gender
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Q1) What do we call the process through which a sense of gender becomes normative and seems natural to us?
A) performance of gender
B) gender stratification
C) cultural construction of gender
D) gender hierarchy
Q2) What is the growing field, particularly within anthropology, that focuses on research into masculinity and femininity as cultural constructs?
A) gender studies
B) cultural anthropology
C) sexuality
D) biology
Q3) Evaluate which of the five sexes in biologist Anne Fausto-Sterling's continuum represents the hijras of India. How do they perform their gender identity in daily life? What economic and social roles do they play in society? Why are they often victims of violence?
Q4) 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.
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Chapter 8: Sexuality
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Sample Questions
Q1) In addition to humans, which other mammals engage in sexual activity for fun rather than exclusively for procreation?
A) elephants
B) dolphins
C) cats
D) gorillas
Q2) Pornography has been attacked, censored, and subjected to legal controls for a long time. Each attempt seems to result in an increase in its dissemination and consumption. Why do governments make such efforts to stop pornography?
A) Governments want to stop pornography to support the rights of women.
B) Governments seek control of the economic output of the pornography industry.
C) Local governments seek ways to enforce zoning laws more effectively.
D) Governments want to regulate the discourse around sexuality.
Q3) 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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Chapter 9: Kinship, Family, and Marriage
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Q1) Toguwagewa's society practices unilateral matrilineal descent. To whom does he consider himself related?
A) his biological father
B) his biological mother's brother
C) his biological father's sister
D) his biological father's mother
Q2) 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
Q3) Anthropologists argue that kinship is one of several ways in which individuals form groups. Name and describe three other ways in which humans form groups. Does kinship influence how these other groups are formed? Why or why not?
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11
Chapter 10: Class and Inequality
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Q1) What does recent archaeological evidence suggest about hierarchy, violence, and aggression?
A) All have been key to increasing an individual's life chances.
B) They are not the basis of evolutionary success.
C) All were central to the evolutionary success of early humans.
D) They are the natural state of human culture.
Q2) Egalitarian societies depend on sharing which of the following in order to ensure group success?
A) children
B) resources
C) weaponry
D) sexual partners
Q3) The culture of poverty theory suggests that poverty is the result of an individual's dysfunctional behaviors, attitudes, and values. Anthropologists have strongly challenged this idea, arguing that poverty is a structural problem. What do they say this results from?
A) It results from uneven access to a college education.
B) It results from partisan political infighting.
C) It results from poor decisions around urban renewal in the 1960s and 1970s.
D) It results from dysfunctional aspects of the entire economic system.
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Chapter 11: The Global Economy
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Q1) In the United States, what form of economic system is taxation?
A) redistribution
B) balanced reciprocity
C) negative reciprocity
D) market exchange
Q2) Neoliberalism is associated with:
A) supporting fair trade to return profits to producers.
B) increased financial regulation to protect consumers from predatory lenders.
C) selling public services like water and public transportation to for-profit companies.
D) increased spending on health and education.
Q3) What argument did Keynes advance about how capitalism works best?
A) Government must reign in the excesses of capitalism and ensure the basic welfare of all citizens.
B) Government must be able to control the free market completely.
C) Free markets must be able to implement the legal structures needed to succeed.
D) All citizens must be able to decide what the free market can and cannot do.
Q4) What does the author mean by "pushes and pulls"? Give two examples each of potential pushes and pulls.
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Page 13
Chapter 12: Politics and Power
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Q1) The political structure of modern countries includes a central government that exercises complete political, military, and economic control of its territory. Modern countries are considered what kind of organization?
A) tribe
B) state
C) band
D) chiefdom
Q2) Even very powerful institutions do not completely dominate people's lives and thinking. Individuals and groups with relatively little power can contest powerful institutions, such as the state, because:
A) individuals are not really affected by systems of power.
B) systems of power, like the state, change constantly and quickly.
C) established systems of power, like the state, are always weakening.
D) systems of power, including the state, are never absolute.
Q3) Compare and contrast the concepts of the band, the tribe, and the chiefdom. What are the advantages of each?
Q4) Discuss the role egalitarianism has played in hunter-gatherer bands and, quite possibly, human evolution.
Q5) Explain what hegemony is and give an example that illustrates your explanation.
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Chapter 13: Religion
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Q1) Anthropologist Victor Turner (1920-1983) considered religious pilgrimage to be a unique form of religious ritual. What is a religious pilgrimage? What are three specific examples of religious pilgrimage and what do they entail? What stages of process do the pilgrimage examples you provided entail? What purposes does religious pilgrimage serve for the individual and his or her community?
Q2) On what basis do people often make sense of the world, reach decisions, and organize their lives?
A) their religious beliefs
B) their society's social organization
C) their ability to falsify the religions of others
D) a theoretical understanding of religious practices
Q3) French sociologist Emile Durkheim argued that religion, particularly religious ritual, serves a crucial role in combating one's sense of anomie and in addressing larger social dynamics of alienation and dislocation. How did Durkheim define anomie, and what is a specific example of it in the world today? How does religious ritual help combat anomie? How does religious ritual address larger social dynamics of alienation and dislocation? How did these notions argued by Durkheim influence the anthropological approach to the study of religion?
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Chapter 14: Health, Illness, and the Body
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Sample Questions
Q1) Paul Farmer's work in Haiti using anthropological tools led him to recognize that these same tools could also do what?
A) be a limitation for doctors working in the remote rural regions of a country
B) be a useful way to convince local governments to provide better medical care
C) help doctors think about health in the broadest possible sense
D) be used to cure diseases in the United States
Q2) What approach would a medical anthropologist take to understand why some middle-class American parents with health insurance do not vaccinate their children for measles, mumps, and rubella?
A) critical medical anthropology
B) epidemiology
C) the interpretivist approach
D) medical ecology
Q3) How does Anne Fadiman's research among Hmong refugees in California illustrate the conflicts that can arise between Western and non-Western approaches to health care and treatment? Describe Lia Lee's health condition, including how her parents' understanding of it differed from physicians' understanding of her condition. What experiences did this family have as a result of cross-cultural misunderstandings?
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Page 16
Chapter 15: Art and Media
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Q1) Define the term kinetic orality and describe the circular relationship Kyra Gaunt documented between the games black girls play and commercial hip-hop culture, especially as it pertains to the construction of gender.
Q2) As discussed in this text, globalization has meant greater economic overlap and communications between different nations. Anthropological studies of art traced the production and sale of art created in once-remote locations to galleries and shops on the other side of the world. When did so-called ethnic art become more popular? Using two specific examples discussed for Africa, explain how art produced in one part of the world is distributed and consumed in the United States or Europe. Identify the two primary types of buyers and discuss three categories of individuals most directly involved in selling the works of art abroad.
Q3) From an anthropological perspective, who is eligible to create and experience art?
A) all groups
B) non-Western populations
C) skilled performers
D) trained artists
Q4) Consider the global trade of West African "wood" and "mud" artwork. Are these objects "authentic"?
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Page 17