Cultural Anthropology Test Preparation
Course Introduction
Cultural Anthropology explores the diverse ways in which people around the world live, think, and interact within their societies. This course examines the foundational theories, methods, and key concepts used by anthropologists to analyze cultural practices, beliefs, language, kinship, religion, economics, and social organization. Students will investigate how culture shapes individual and collective identities, influences behaviors, and responds dynamically to globalization, power structures, and societal change. Through ethnographic case studies and critical discussions, the course fosters an appreciation for cultural diversity and the skills needed to engage thoughtfully in a multicultural world.
Recommended Textbook
Cultural Anthropology Appreciating Cultural Diversity 15th Edition by Conrad Kottak
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15 Chapters
963 Verified Questions
963 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: What Is Anthropology
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53 Verified Questions
53 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Based on his observations that contact between neighboring tribes had existed since humanity's beginnings and covered enormous areas, Franz Boas argued
A) against treating cultures as isolated phenomena.
B) that even the earliest foragers engaged in warfare.
C) that language must have originated among the Neandertals.
D) that biology, not culture, was responsible for the vast majority of human diversity.
E) that general anthropologists were wrong to focus too much attention on biology.
Answer: A
Q2) Ethnomusicology is one of the four main subfields of anthropology.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) As an academic discipline, anthropology falls under both the social sciences and the humanities.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 2: Culture
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62 Verified Questions
62 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Culture is transmitted in society.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) Independent invention occurs when two or more cultures independently come up with similar solutions to a common problem.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Which of the following is a cultural generality?
A) exogamy
B) the use of fire
C) the incest taboo
D) the use of symbols
E) the nuclear family
Answer: E
Q4) Hunting is a distinctive human activity not shared with the apes.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Page 4
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Chapter 3: Method and Theory in Cultural Anthropology
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70 Verified Questions
70 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Ethnographers typically combine emic and etic research strategies in their fieldwork. This means they are interested in applying both
A) local- and scientist-oriented research approaches.
B) local and bifocal research approaches.
C) reflexive and salvage approaches.
D) personal and impersonal research approaches.
E) the genealogical and survey methods.
Answer: A
Q2) Which of the following is NOT an example of participant observation?
A) administering interviews according to an interview schedule over the phone
B) helping out at harvest time
C) dancing at a ceremony
D) buying a shroud for a village ancestor
E) engaging in informal chit-chat
Answer: A
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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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is a distinguishing characteristic of the work that applied anthropologists do?
A) They enter the affected communities and talk with people.
B) They gather government statistics.
C) They consult project managers.
D) They consult government officials and other experts.
E) They promote development.
Q2) Robert Redfield's research recognized that a city is a social context that is very different from a tribal or peasant village. What did he study?
A) differences between more and less developed countries in their urban life
B) differences between health care systems among foragers and agriculturalists
C) differences between urban and rural communities
D) differences between the consequences of overinnovation and underdifferentiation
E) differences between illnesses and diseases
Q3) A bachelor's degree in anthropology is of little value in the corporate world.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 5: Language and Communication
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60 Verified Questions
60 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the term for the ability to create new expressions by combining other expressions?
A) displacement
B) diglossia
C) productivity
D) morphemic utility
E) phonemic utility
Q2) Problems arise with contemporary means of communication, such as texting and online messaging, because much of what we communicate is a nonverbal reflection of emotional states.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The origins of BEV are found mostly in West Africa, not in the dialects of the southern part of the United States.
A)True
B)False
Q4) All languages and dialects are equally effective as systems of communication.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 6: Ethnicity and Race
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the term for the use of force by a dominant group to compel a minority to adopt the dominant culture?
A) attitudinal discrimination
B) genocide
C) forced assimilation
D) ethnocentrism
E) environmental racism
Q2) Which of the following statements about human skin color is NOT true?
A) Skin color varies because of differences in ultraviolet radiation between different regions of the world.
B) The amount of melanin in the skin affects the body's production of vitamin D.
C) The amount of melanin in the skin affects the body's ability to process lactose.
D) Light skin is at a selective advantage outside the tropics, because it admits ultraviolet radiation, which causes the body to manufacture vitamin D and thus prevents rickets and osteoporosis.
E) Light skin is at a selective disadvantage in the tropics, because it is more susceptible to the destruction of the folate that is needed to produce folic acid to protect against neural tube defects in human embryos.
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Chapter 7: Making a Living
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Sample Questions
Q1) Potlatching is a form of competitive feasting that enables individuals to redistribute surplus materials while simultaneously increasing their own prestige.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following does NOT occur in moving along the cultivation continuum?
A) Population density increases.
B) Societies become more egalitarian.
C) Village size increases.
D) Villages are located closer together.
E) Land is used more intensively.
Q3) Why do anthropologists question the idea that present-day foragers can be compared to Paleolithic foragers?
A) There are no present-day foragers.
B) The types of foraging vary so widely that few generalizations can be drawn.
C) Present-day foragers have been in contact with food-producing and industrialized societies for long periods of time, and all live within nation-states that inevitably affect their livelihood.
D) Paleolithic foragers were prelinguistic.
E) Paleolithic foragers were not Homo sapiens.
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Page 9
Chapter 8: Political Systems
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Sample Questions
Q1) As a stark reminder that no society truly is isolated, this chapter's "Appreciating Diversity" segment describes how various levels of political regulation-local, regional, national, and international-now determine how contemporary people such as the Venezuelan Yanomami live their lives. All of the following are examples of this, EXCEPT that
A) in 2005, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez expelled foreign missionaries working among the Yanomami, accusing them of espionage.
B) both the Yanomami and government workers such as nurses and doctors depend on the military to provide transportation in and out of the rain forest.
C) Yanomami leaders argue that since the expulsion of the missionaries in 2005 they have been neglected by the Venezuelan government.
D) In 2005, the Venezuelan government created the Yanomami Health Plan, with an aim to train some Yanomami to be health workers in their villages while sending doctors into the jungle to provide health care to remote communities.
E) Yanomami leaders have been expelled by their own communities because of accusations of sorcery.
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Chapter 9: Gender
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51 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) When compared to other kinds of societies, all the following are true about foragers EXCEPT that
A) the public and private spheres are least separate.
B) hierarchy is least marked.
C) aggression and competition are most discouraged.
D) sexual promiscuity is most common and routinely punished.
E) the rights, activities, and spheres of influence of men and women overlap the most.
Q2) What is the relationship between gender stratification and economic roles? Do these relationships apply equally to all types of societies, regardless of the type of productive activity? Why or why not?
Q3) All of the following are associated with plow agriculture EXCEPT
A) a decline in both polygyny and unilineal descent.
B) differential rights in divorce and sexuality for men and women.
C) an overall increase in the status of women as new production techniques called for female as well as male labor.
D) a sharp contrast between the domestic and extradomestic realms.
E) the isolation of women in nuclear family households.
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Chapter 10: Families, Kinship, and Descent
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Sample Questions
Q1) Cite evidence confirming or denying the universality of the nuclear family. Give examples from different cultures. What other social units might assume the functions associated with nuclear families?
Q2) After reaching an all-time low for the 20th century in the 1970s, the nuclear family is now making a rebound, accounting for a greater number of U.S. households each year.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A functional explanation attempts to correlate particular customs (in this case kinship terms) to other features of society.
A)True
B)False
Q4) In a bifurcate merging kinship system, which of the following would be called by the same term?
A) F and MB
B) M and MZ
C) MB and FB
D) FZ and MZ
E) JR and BJ
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Chapter 11: Marriage
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Sample Questions
Q1) In tribal societies, unlike industrial ones, marriage entails only an agreement between the people getting married; descent groups play only a minor role.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Royal endogamy among Hawaiians functioned to limit the number of conflicts about royal succession, this explanation being an example of the latent function of a social custom.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Almost all cases of bridewealth are associated with patrilineal, patrilocal systems. Why? If there were such a thing as groom price, where would you expect to find it? Why? Why do we not find groom service ethnographically?
Q4) Homogamy is the practice of marrying within a culturally prescribed group to which one does not belong.
A)True
B)False
Q5) How would you explain the universality of the incest taboo? You may draw on one or more of the explanations offered previously.
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Chapter 12: Religion
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Sample Questions
Q1) What term refers to a custom or social action that operates to reduce differences in wealth and bring standouts in line with community norms?
A) rite of passage
B) revitalization movement
C) syncretism
D) taboo
E) leveling mechanism
Q2) Contrast ritual behavior with ordinary behavior. Give examples of religious and secular rituals. What are the main differences between such kinds of rituals?
Q3) Worldwide, Islam is growing at a rate of about 2.9 percent annually, versus 2.3 percent for Christianity, whose overall growth rate is the same as the rate of world population increase.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Shamans are full-time religious practitioners generally found in state-level societies.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 13: Arts, Media, and Sports
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Sample Questions
Q1) Because music is a cultural universal and musical abilities seem to run in families,
A) everybody, regardless of culture, loves to dance.
B) it is possible to use musical abilities as a biological marker for human races.
C) it has been suggested that music is a concept of a social fiction.
D) anthropologists should investigate the connection between music and formerly misunderstood kinship arrangements.
E) it has been suggested that the predisposition for music may have a genetic basis.
Q2) Catharsis is an intense emotional release.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Some researchers have proposed that early humans with a biological penchant for music may have been able to live more effectively in social groups, thus conferring an adaptive advantage to this penchant.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Where is art found? Is art found in the same contexts in all kinds of societies?
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Chapter 14: The World System and Colonialism
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Sample Questions
Q1) What best typifies the intervention philosophy of the French empire?
A) carte blanche
B) savoir-faire
C) coup d'état
D) mission civilisatrice
E) nom de plume
Q2) The distinction between small-c communism and large-C Communism is an example of arbitrary concepts defined in the social sciences.
A)True
B)False
Q3) According to Weber, what are the three dimensions of social stratification?
A) the means of production, mode of production, and measure of production
B) status, exchange, and religion
C) gender, ethnicity, and race
D) wealth, power, and prestige
E) age, gender, and ethnicity
Q4) Hundreds of ethnic groups and so-called tribes are colonial constructs. What does this mean-does it suggest that they are only imaginary and therefore of no consequence? Provide illustrations with your answers.
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Chapter 15: Anthropologys Role in a Globalizing World
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61 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) In 1989, a military government seized power in the Sudan. This resulted in which of the following?
A) The Sudan now has no more tribal religions, because everyone has converted to either Christianity or Islam.
B) The Sudan is now the largest country in Papua New Guinea.
C) The Sudanese government adopted a policy of cultural imperialism.
D) The Sudan has little ethnic or religious diversity.
E) The Sudanese government has institutionalized cargo cults.
Q2) Although acculturation can be applied to any case of cultural contact and change, the term most often has described Westernization, the positive influence of Western expansion that has spread democratic and capitalistic values to those less fortunate.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Radiative forcings work to warm and cool the earth. If these didn't exist, there would be no global warming.
A)True
B)False
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