Cultural Anthropology
Final Exam Questions
Course Introduction
Cultural Anthropology explores the diversity of human cultures across the globe, examining the beliefs, practices, social structures, languages, and traditions that shape societies. Through ethnographic studies and comparative analysis, students learn about cultural adaptation, identity, kinship, religion, economics, and political systems. The course encourages critical reflection on globalization, cultural change, and the interaction between cultures, providing tools to understand and appreciate cultural differences and address contemporary social issues in a diverse world.
Recommended Textbook
Cultural Anthropology 16th Edition by Conrad Phillip Kottak
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Chapter 1: What Is Anthropology
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Q1) This chapter provides an example of human adaptation to high altitude to illustrate the various forms of cultural and biological adaptation.Can you think of another example that illustrates the broad capacity of humans to adapt both biologically and culturally?
Answer: Another example of human adaptation that illustrates the broad capacity of humans to adapt both biologically and culturally is the Maasai people of East Africa. The Maasai have traditionally lived in a semi-nomadic lifestyle, herding cattle and moving with the seasons to find grazing land and water sources. This lifestyle has required them to adapt both biologically and culturally to their environment. Biologically, the Maasai have developed a diet that is high in milk, blood, and meat, which has allowed them to thrive in an environment where plant-based foods are scarce. Culturally, the Maasai have developed a social structure and belief system that supports their nomadic lifestyle, including communal land ownership and a strong emphasis on cattle as a symbol of wealth and status. This example demonstrates how humans have the capacity to adapt to a wide range of environments through both biological and cultural means.
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Chapter 2: Culture
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Q1) Many human traits reflect the fact that our primate ancestors lived in trees.These traits include all of the following EXCEPT
A)grasping ability.
B)depth and color vision.
C)learning ability based on a large brain.
D)substantial parental investment in a limited number of offspring.
E)echolocation, made possible by overlapping visual fields.
Answer: E
Q2) Human rights are seen as inalienable.This means that
A)no one can abuse them.
B)nations cannot abridge or terminate them.
C)they are vested in groups and not individuals.
D)anthropologists have no moral grounds to question them.
E)they are universally accepted by all individuals.
Answer: B
Q3) According to Leslie White, culture is dependent upon the ability to create and use symbols.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 3: Method and Theory in Cultural Anthropology
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Q1) Which of the following research methods is a distinctive strategy within anthropology?
A)its practice of cross-cultural comparison
B)the biological perspective
C)ethnography
D)the evolutionary perspective
E)working with skilled respondents
Answer: C
Q2) Manchester anthropologists Max Gluckman and Victor Turner made conflict an important part of their analysis, distancing themselves somewhat from Panglossian functionalism, the tendency to see things as functioning not just to maintain the system but to do so in the most optimal way possible.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Survey research studies a small sample of a larger population.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Applying Anthropology
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Q1) People are usually willing to change just enough to maintain, or slightly improve on, what they already have.For this reason, development projects are most likely to succeed when they avoid the fallacy of A)cultural relativism.
B)ethno-bias.
C)overinnovation.
D)underdifferentiation.
E)intervention philosophy.
Q2) Ethnographic study of the workplace
A)provides evidence that economic factors are fundamental to understanding differential productivity.
B)is routinely performed by employees of the U.S.federal government.
C)is not very useful, because all workplaces are becoming increasingly homogeneous, compared to 20 years ago.
D)provides close observation of workers and managers in their natural setting.
E)is required of all organizations that want to become not-for-profit, according to the American Anthropological Association.
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Chapter 5: Language and Communication
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Q1) Historical linguists use linguistic similarities and differences in the world today to study long-term changes in language.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Words that clearly descend from the same ancestral word are known as A)synonyms.
B)subgroups.
C)homonyms.
D)cognates.
E)daughters.
Q3) Phonology is the study of speech sounds. A)True
B)False
Q4) Bourdieu argues that languages with the highest symbolic capital are those that are better systems of communication.
A)True B)False
Q5) Discuss some common interests of linguistics and ethnography.Of what use can knowledge of linguistic techniques and principles be to the ethnographer?
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Chapter 6: Ethnicity and Race
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Q1) Higher amounts of melanin in the skin inhibit the body's ability to manufacture vitaminD.This confers an adaptive advantage in environments with excessive sun exposure.
A)True
B)False
Q2) A policy of ethnic expulsion aims at removing from a country groups who are culturally different.There are many examples, including Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 1990s; Uganda expelling 74,000 Asians in 1972; and so on.The neofascist parties of contemporary western Europe advocate the repatriation of immigrant workers.What is one of the potential consequences of such policies?
A)the breakup of imaginary communes
B)the creation of refugees-people who have been forced or have chosen to flee a country to escape persecution or war
C)state-mandated forced assimilation
D)the creation of class consciousness
E)gender stratification
Q3) In cultural terms, a race is an ethnic group that has a biological basis.
A)True
B)False
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Page 8
Chapter 7: Making a Living
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Q1) In recent times, many foraging groups have been exposed to the idea of food production but have not adopted it.Why?
A)They did not have the skills or tools to do so.
B)Their own economies provided a perfectly adequate and nutritious diet, with a lot less work.
C)People naturally resist change, especially foragers.
D)They had to ask permission from the state to do so.
E)They did not realize the advantages of food production.
Q2) This chapter's description of the San Bushmen's relation to the government of Botswana provides a telling example of how
A)foragers are willingly choosing to change their lifestyles and become a part of the global village.
B)foraging communities' identities are being reshaped by their relation with NGOs.
C)the foraging lifestyle has finally become a thing of the past.
D)more and more foragers have come under the control of nation-states and are now influenced by the forces of globalization.
E)human rights are limited.
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Chapter 8: Political Systems
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Q1) The status systems of chiefdoms and states are similar, in that both are based on differential access to resources.Nevertheless, a key distinction is that
A)status is much more important to leaders in chiefdoms than in states.
B)differential access in chiefdoms is still very much tied to kinship.
C)stratum endogamy exists in chiefdoms but not in state status systems.
D)in chiefdoms, women are always excluded from the competition for status, whereas in states, this gender difference does not exist.
E)the status system of chiefdoms can sometimes function in a completely egalitarian manner when the populations are small enough.
Q2) What are the major results and implications of food production? How does reliance on food production affect the social, economic, and political organization of societies that practice it?
Q3) Discuss ways in which order is maintained in societies that lack chiefs and rulers.
Q4) The elites of archaic states restricted access to sumptuary goods.
A)True
B)False
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Page 10
Chapter 9: Gender
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Q1) Which of the following statements about groups with the patrilineal-patrilocal complex is NOT true?
A)They are sometimes characterized by a view that females are dangerous and polluting.
B)Their land and prestige are passed through the females.
C)They have strongly developed private-public dichotomies.
D)They have their prestige goods under male control.
E)They often practice polygyny and have patterns of intervillage raiding.
Q2) Cross-culturally, women's roles tend to be focused on activities associated with the home, while men are more active in the public domain.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Are certain sexual preferences more natural than others? What factors compel some societies to deviate from the heterosexual norm found in most human societies?
Q4) Across differing societies, women generally dominate the practice of subsistence labor.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 10: Families, Kinship, and Descent
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Q1) What is the difference between kin terms and genealogical kin types? Why would an anthropologist want to make such a distinction? Can you see any problems with this distinction? In your everyday experience, do you distinguish between kin terms and genealogical kin types?
Q2) In some systems of kinship terminology, lineal and collateral relatives are grouped together under the same kinship terms, and in others they are not.In terms of the sociocultural setting in which these terminologies exist, discuss reasons for the differences.
Q3) With patrilineal descent, someone takes his or her father's last name but recognizes descent through both parents.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What makes up ego's nuclear family of orientation?
A)parents and siblings
B)spouse and offspring
C)extended family
D)lineal kin
E)collateral kin
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12
Chapter 11: Marriage
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Q1) In South Sudan, a Nuer woman can marry a woman if her father has only daughters but no male heirs.This is done to maintain the patrilineage.The "wife" has sex with one or more men until she gets pregnant.The children born are then accepted as the offspring of both the female husband and the wife.What is important in this example is A)the fact that only same-sex marriages are recognized in patrilineal societies. B)social rather than biological paternity, again illustrating how kinship is socially constructed.
C)how biology overrides culture regardless of human intentions. D)how often marriage is simply about property.
E)that it illustrates how romantic love is both universal and complicated.
Q2) Which of the following is ego's cross cousin?
A)MBS (mother's brother's son)
B)FBS (father's brother's son)
C)MZD (mother's sister's daughter)
D)FBD (father's brother's daughter)
E)MZS (mother's sister's son)
Q3) Discuss some of the social functions of levirate and sororate marriage, and identify the sociocultural context of these customs.
Q4) Does the practice of paying a dowry necessarily imply gender inequality?
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Chapter 12: Religion
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Q1) Worldwide, Islam is growing at a rate of about 2.9 percent annually, versus 2.3 percent for Christianity.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Émile Durkheim, an early scholar of religion, stressed what he termed religious effervescence.Anthropologists too have stressed the collective, social, shared, and enacted nature of religion, the emotions it generates, and the meanings it embodies.
A)True
B)False
Q3) To Kottak, the widespread U.S.belief that recreation and religion are separate domains is both ethnocentric and false.Further, it may be taking the "fun" out of religion.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Much religious and ritual behavior is adaptive.Can you think of cases in which it is not? What does it mean for religion to be maladaptive?
Q5) How do you explain the universality of religion?
Q6) Discuss two cases illustrating religion's role in social change.
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Page 14
Chapter 13: Arts, Media, and Sports
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Q1) During his work among the Tiv, Bohannan found that critics played a key role in the creative process for the production of works of art.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following is NOT discussed in this chapter as a way of defining art?
A)Art is something that attracts your attention, catches your eye, and directs your thoughts.
B)Art is the quality, production, expression, or realm of what is beautiful or of more than ordinary significance.
C)Art is the class of objects subject to aesthetic criteria.
D)Art is the creative expression of culture through the visual arts, literature, music, theater arts, and other methods.
E)Art is in a cultural sphere separate from politics and religion.
Q3) In the United States, there is a sharp distinction between what is considered art and what is not.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 14: The World System and Colonialism
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Q1) According to Wallerstein (1982, 2004), what are the three structural positions of the modern world system?
A)core, periphery, and semiperiphery
B)metropole, satellite, and semisatellite
C)state, nation-state, and nation
D)wealth, power, and prestige
E)preliterate, nonliterate, and literate
Q2) Which of the following is NOT true about the modern world system?
A)The distinction between bourgeoisie and proletariat has disappeared.
B)The contrast between capitalists and propertyless workers is a worldwide phenomenon.
C)Stratification systems are not simple and dichotomous.
D)There is a growing middle class of skilled and professional workers.
E)Intermediate occupations create opportunities for social mobility.
Q3) Based on the way the text defines imperialism and colonialism, do you think that they describe phenomena of the past? These terms have been used recently to describe current international affairs.Find an example of this, and compare the use of the term to its definition in the text.
Q4) What is the world system perspective, and why is it important in anthropology?
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Chapter 15: Anthropologys Role in a Globalizing World
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Q1) Anthropology teaches us that the adaptive responses of humans can be more flexible than those of other species because our main adaptive means are
A)biocultural.
B)ethnocentric.
C)chosen through free will.
D)sociocultural.
E)anthropomorphic.
Q2) Today's ecological anthropology, also known as environmental anthropology, attempts not only to understand environmental problems but also to A)find solutions, acknowledging that ecosystems management involves multiple levels.
B)prescribe top-down solutions to ecological problems.
C)work closely with state agencies, among whom they do most of their ethnography, to promote institutional change.
D)contribute to development projects that sometimes, out of necessity, replace indigenous institutions with culturally alien concepts.
E)promote the concepts of environmental rights, even at the expense of cultural rights.
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