Evolutionary Anthropology Test Bank
Course
Introduction
Evolutionary Anthropology explores the origins, development, and diversity of humans and our closest relatives through the lens of evolutionary theory. This interdisciplinary course integrates perspectives from biology, archaeology, primatology, and cultural studies to examine topics such as human evolution, genetic inheritance, adaptation, fossil records, and the evolution of social behaviors and cultural practices. By analyzing both the physical and cultural aspects of human evolution, students gain a comprehensive understanding of how evolutionary processes have shaped biological traits and social structures in the human lineage.
Recommended Textbook
Human Evolution and Culture Highlights of Anthropology 8th Edition by Carol R. Ember
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1042 Verified Questions
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Page 2
Chapter 1: What Is Anthropology?
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Q1) Which of the following disciplines would have the greatest overlap with archaeologists researching early toolmaking?
A) geology
B) geography
C) anatomy
D) sociology
Answer: A
Q2) Unlike other linguists,anthropological linguists are primarily interested in
A) unwritten languages
B) the ways in which language is related to beliefs and behaviors
C) the way language is used in different social contexts
D) the historical connections of different languages to each other
Answer: A
Q3) How does anthropology differ from other disciplines concerned with humans?
A) It is broader in scope, both geographically and historically.
B) Anthropology has a more narrow focus on the cultural "other."
C) It has existed as a discipline longer than most other social sciences.
D) Anthropology has a less scientific approach than other disciplines.
Answer: A
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Chapter 2: Research Methods in Anthropology
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Q1) While anthropologists often use pseudonyms to protect their study populations,what problem might arise from this practice?
A) It is difficult to conduct follow-up research if the community has been disguised.
B) Using a fake name for the community reduces the credibility of the study's findings.
C) Most anthropologists find the practice disrespectful to study populations.
D) It is unethical to conceal the locations of illegal or otherwise improper behaviors.
Answer: A
Q2) When would you use a statistical test of significance?
A) to measure the differences among variables
B) to definitively prove a theory
C) to determine the level of importance to attach to a theoretical construct
D) to determine whether your conclusion was right or wrong
Answer: A
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4
Chapter 3: Genetics and Evolution
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Sample Questions
Q1) Natural selection operates on an individual's __________.
A) phenotype
B) genotype
C) haplotype
D) karyotype
Answer: A
Q2) Explain the difference between simple traits,which are either dominant or recessive,and more complex,polygenic traits.Which are more common in humans,and why?
Answer: The ideal answer should include:
1.Define dominant and recessive
2.Explain the difference between alleles and genes
3.Note polygenic traits are coded by multiple genes and may be influenced by the environment
Q3) Which of these is an example of a maladaptive trait?
A) Humans are prone to back pain and varicose veins because we walk upright.
B) Horses have specialized toes to give them both strength and speed.
C) Dogs have developed the ability to read human social cues.
D) Many bird species can now mimic the sounds of human technology.
Answer: A
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Chapter 4: Human Variation and Adaptation
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Q1) Which of the following statements is true regarding lactose tolerance?
A) Lactose intolerance is common in many parts of the world.
B) Lactose intolerance is found only among Asian populations.
C) Lactose tolerance is a result of acclimatization to dairy products in childhood.
D) Lactose tolerance is based on access to westernized medical care.
Q2) What did Franz Boas find in his study of the head shape of immigrants?
A) The head shape of second-generation immigrants of different groups were more similar to each other than to their parents, indicating some influence of the environment on head shape.
B) Children's head shapes were almost identical to their parents', indicating that head shape is a highly heritable trait.
C) There is no relationship to either biology or to the environment in terms of head shape.
D) Variation in head shape is greater among Italian immigrants than among German immigrants.
Q3) Race is a highly controversial topic when applied to human differences.Why is it so controversial?
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Chapter 5: Primates: Past and Present
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Q1) What is the relationship between the terms hominoid and hominin?
A) All hominins are hominoids, but not all hominoids are hominins.
B) All hominoids are hominins, but not all hominins are hominoids.
C) Hominoids are all extinct, but there are many living hominins.
D) Hominins are all extinct, but there are many living hominoids.
Q2) As with humans,other primates need play time to help develop normally.This is because play __________.
A) provides a way to learn social skills
B) creates a status-free social system
C) is a necessary activity in adult primate life
D) determines one's place in the social hierarchy
Q3) Of the physical traits that distinguish hominins from other hominoids,which do you think is most critical for the identification of a fossil species as a hominin? Explain your answer.
Q4) Which of these is a late Miocene ape?
A) Dryopithecus
B) Pierolapithecus
C) Aegyptopithecus
D) Kenyapithecus
Q5) List and explain the key traits that are characteristic of the order Primates.
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Chapter 6: The First Hominins and the Emergence of Homo
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Q1) The A.africanus fossil that Raymond Dart discovered was that of __________.
A) a young child
B) an adult man
C) an old woman
D) a teenager
Q2) Which was the first plausible candidate for a transitional species between hominoids and hominins?
A) Ardipithecus
B) Australopithecus
C) Sahelanthropus
D) Orrorin
Q3) Recent genetic evidence suggests that the expansion of the brain might be related to __________.
A) a mutation in the muscles of the jaw
B) sexual selection for individuals with big brains
C) genetic drift between populations with big and smaller brains
D) hybridization between small-brained australopithecines and big-brained Homo
Q4) Discuss how archaeologists know that something is a tool.What information can be determined from which methods? What areas of hominin lifestyles remain speculative?
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Chapter 7: The Emergence of Homo sapiens and the Upper
Paleolithic World
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Q1) If a second Denisovan site were found today,where would you most expect it to be located?
A) central Asia
B) western Europe
C) the Middle East
D) southern Africa
Q2) What feature of Mousterian tools suggests that they were hafted?
A) Many of them were thinned or shaped on one side.
B) They were all bifaced tools.
C) They were primarily made of wood or bone.
D) Many of them were core choppers.
Q3) What could explain the trend toward smaller blades during the Upper Paleolithic?
A) The small blade technique was a more efficient use of flint.
B) Small blades were made to be disposable.
C) Toolmakers gained esteem by making tiny, delicate items.
D) Small blades are more deadly than big ones.
Q4) Evaluate the current theories of migration into the New World.
Q5) How has our understanding of the relationship between Neandertals and humans changed over time?
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Chapter 8: Food Production and the Rise of States
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Q1) How did a shift to a more sedentary lifestyle and reliance on grains affect the Natufians' health?
A) They suffered nutritional deficiency, as shown by their teeth.
B) They grew an average of 2 inches taller than previous generations.
C) Their birth rate declined.
D) They had a more diverse diet with better vitamin content.
Q2) Where would you go to participate in a dig at the site of the ancient state of Axum?
A) Ethiopia
B) Sudan
C) South Africa
D) Nigeria
Q3) Why did cities and states emerge in Mesoamerica later than in the Near East?
A) Agriculture started later in the New World than in the Old World.
B) The population in Mesoamerican was not interested in the development of cities.
C) It was easier to domesticate large animals like cattle and horses without cities.
D) The climate of Mesoamerica was not suitable for building cities.
Q4) What are the consequences of state formation?
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Chapter 9: Culture and Culture Change
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Q1) In what areas of American culture have the most drastic changes of cultural norms taken place in the last generation?
A) sex and marriage
B) economics
C) religious practices
D) our educational system
Q2) Which of the following is a basic pattern of diffusion?
A) intermediate contact
B) invention
C) historical interaction
D) discovery
Q3) Anthropologists,as well as other social scientists,feel that culture is __________.
A) learned and shared
B) inherited
C) transmitted only from one group to another
D) only a small part of how people learn their behaviors
Q4) Explain how cultural constraints regulate cultural norms by giving specific examples of both direct and indirect cultural constraints common to your own culture.
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Chapter 10: Communication and Language
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Q1) Why might someone code-switch between their own language and the language of a politically more powerful society?
A) The dominant culture's language is seen as a symbol of high status and upward mobility.
B) It is inevitable that the dominant culture's language will soon be taught in schools, so it is easier to adopt it right away.
C) They do not fully understand the dominant language, and revert back to their native language as needed.
D) Only certain members of society are permitted to speak the dominant culture's language.
Q2) Compared to people in simpler societies,people in complex societies __________.
A) commonly can give a larger number of general, or life-form, terms for plants and animals
B) commonly have fewer terms for plants but many for animals
C) commonly have the same number of general terms for plants, but more terms for specific plants
D) usually have more names for specific plants, but the same number of general plant terms
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Chapter 11: Economics
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Q1) Societies that engage in pastoralism are characterized by __________.
A) small, highly mobile groups
B) a dependence on small animals like chickens or pigs
C) living in densely forested environments
D) a very high birth rate
Q2) The different forms of reciprocity are connected by the fact that they all __________.
A) exist without the use of money
B) involve exchanges of relatively equal value
C) are centered on gift-giving
D) are tied directly to food resources
Q3) When the federal government collects a portion of our wages as taxes and then returns that money in the form of national security,roads,education,and other goods and services to its citizens,it is demonstrating which type of economic exchange?
A) redistribution
B) market exchange
C) generalized reciprocity
D) voluntary labor
Q4) What social characteristics are associated with foragers and complex foragers?
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Chapter 12: Social Stratification: Class, Ethnicity, and Racism
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Q1) Slaves are persons who do not own their own labor.As such,they represent a(n)__________.
A) class
B) ethnicity
C) caste
D) society
Q2) Who is an Aryan?
A) anyone who speaks one of the Indo-European languages
B) blond-haired, blue-eyed, white-skinned people
C) an imaginary category of socially advantaged people
D) a member of the Nazi party
Q3) While two-thirds of burakumin report that they had not encountered discrimination,what evidence suggests that inequality persists?
A) Most burakumin live in segregated communities with high unemployment.
B) Burakumin are only allowed to marry within their group.
C) Education levels are particularly low among the burakumin.
D) Subtle messages in the media depict burakumin as undesirable
Q4) Discuss the differences in caste and open class systems. How are each assigned? How are they maintained? What level of social mobility is involved with each?
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Sex and Gender
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Q1) Restrictions of homosexual behavior seem to be associated with __________.
A) a desire for population growth
B) complex societies
C) male to female ratio
D) economic security
Q2) How is gender assigned in the United States?
A) by external biological attributes
B) based on parental preference
C) by newborn behavioral traits
D) based on hormone levels
Q3) In a study of the Kayapo,which women were found to have less influence in community decision-making?
A) those with heavy child-care burdens
B) women of low-ranking clans
C) barren and post-menopausal women
D) mothers of shaman
Q4) What evidence exists to support the notion that homosexuality is less tolerated in societies that value increasing their population?
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Chapter 14: Marriage, Family, and Kinship
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Q1) Which of the following statements is true of the relationship between family and household?
A) In simpler societies, the family and household are indistinguishable, but in more complex societies they may diverge.
B) In complex societies, the family and household are indistinguishable, but in simpler societies they may diverge.
C) In simpler societies, the family is always bigger than the household, but in more complex societies they are of comparable size.
D) In complex societies, the family is always bigger than the household, but in simpler societies they are of comparable size.
Q2) In which society did people not marry,but rather lived their whole lives in a residential group made up of maternal kin?
A) Na
B) Subanun
C) Kwakiutl
D) Hadza
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Chapter 15: Political Life: Social Order and Disorder
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Q1) Which of these is an example of a codified law?
A) paying according to your tax bracket
B) saying the pledge of allegiance
C) testifying in front of a jury
D) giving gifts for birthdays
Q2) Which of these subsistence patterns would you expect to find in a chiefdom?
A) intensive agriculture
B) shifting agriculture
C) food collecting
D) horticulture
Q3) What factor aided the state-level U.S.society in the defeat and incorporation of Native American societies?
A) depopulation of native groups
B) use of horses and firearms
C) prophecies and religious beliefs
D) knowledge of local landscape
Q4) Compare and contrast the political life of bands and tribal organizations.
Q5) What is the consequence of the spread of state societies for the number of politically autonomous cultures found around the world?
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Chapter 16: Religion and Magic
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Q1) Which type of society is most likely to have a monotheistic religion?
A) a society with hierarchical political systems
B) a society that is located near the equator
C) a relatively small society in which most members know each other well
D) a society in which children are harshly disciplined
Q2) What signs have archaeologists uncovered that suggest religious belief dates back to nearly 60,000 years ago?
A) grave goods
B) written texts
C) ancient songs
D) temple ruins
Q3) Distinguish between the roles of shamans,priests,sorcerers,mediums,and witches. In what types of society would you expect to find each role?
Q4) Beliefs about what is,or is not,a supernatural occurrence __________.
A) vary within a society over time
B) are shared by all individuals within a society
C) are fixed in a society and rarely, if ever, change
D) are relatively consistent across cultures
Q5) Outline the ways in which people interact with the supernatural.
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Chapter 17: The Arts
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Q1) Are the categories "tourist art" and "fine art" mutually exclusive? Why or why not?
Q2) How did many Native American groups supplement their incomes after being placed on reservations?
A) They sold arts and crafts.
B) They became storytellers.
C) They taught their language to Westerners.
D) They sold off their land.
Q3) Across cultures,masks seem to portray facial expressions in the same way. Threatening faces tend to be more __________,and nonthreatening ones are more
A) angular; rounded
B) hairy; angular
C) bumpy; hairy
D) rounded; bumpy
Q4) How might a historian interpret the Garden of Eden tale?
A) Men lived in blissful ignorance until women invented agriculture.
B) It reflects men's deeply hidden fears of female sexuality.
C) Literacy and other forms of knowledge brought irreversible social change.
D) It encourages men to control their wives, who are apt to make bad decisions.
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Chapter 18: Global Problems
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Q1) Physical punishment of children occurs at least sometimes in over __________ percent of the world's societies.
A) 70
B) 40
C) 50
D) 20
Q2) Consider the many global problems discussed in this chapter. Of these,on which do you feel applied anthropologists can make the biggest impact? Explain your answer.
Q3) In the year 2000,about __________ people experienced homelessness in the United States; nearly __________ of those were children.
A) 3.5 million; 40 percent
B) 2 million; 50 percent
C) 1 million; 25 percent
D) 5 million; 30 percent
Q4) How is terrorism distinct from other forms of crime or acts of war?
Q5) What social factors increase the likelihood of family violence?
Q6) What social factors are associated with famines?
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Chapter 19: Practicing and Applying Anthropology
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Q1) Which groups that seem to be the key to effective development are increasingly seeking the help of applied anthropologists?
A) indigenous grassroots movements
B) government organizations
C) nongovernment organizations
D) private companies
Q2) Which illness is thought of as a "culture-bound syndrome"?
A) anorexia nervosa
B) diabetes mellitus
C) depression
D) hypertension
Q3) Why have the Kayapo been so successful in gaining international attention for their interests?
A) They have been able to present themselves as guardians of the rain forest.
B) They are far more assimilated into Western culture than other indigenous groups.
C) They have a large and ethnically diverse population.
D) They are able to communicate in Spanish and English, unlike other Amazonian groups.
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