General Anthropology Review Questions
Course Introduction
General Anthropology provides a comprehensive introduction to the study of humanity, exploring human biological and cultural diversity across time and space. The course covers the four primary subfields of anthropology: cultural anthropology, archaeology, biological anthropology, and linguistic anthropology. Students will learn about the origins and evolution of our species, patterns of social organization, language development, cultural beliefs, and the methods anthropologists use to study these phenomena. By examining case studies from different societies, the course fosters an appreciation for both the unity and diversity of human experience, and prepares students to critically analyze contemporary global issues through an anthropological lens.
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Anthropology Appreciating Human Diversity 16th Edition by Conrad Kottak
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Page 2
Chapter 1: What Is Anthropology
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Q1) Humans can adapt to their surroundings through both biological and cultural means.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) Psychologists tend to study only people living in the non-Western world,so anthropology has very little to offer this field.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) How are the four subfields of U.S.anthropology unified?
A) Each subfield studies human variation through time and space.
B) Each subfield studies the human capacity for language.
C) Each subfield studies human biological variability.
D) Each subfield studies human genetic variation through time and space.
E) The subfields really are not unified; their grouping into one discipline is a historical accident.
Answer: A
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3
Chapter 2: Culture
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Q1) Although rap music originated in the United States,it is now popular all over the world.Which of the following mechanisms of cultural change is responsible for this?
A) acculturation
B) enculturation
C) independent invention
D) colonization
E) diffusion
Answer: E
Q2) Which of the following statements about subcultures is NOT true?
A) Subcultures exemplify "levels of culture."
B) Subcultures have different learning experiences.
C) Subcultures have shared learning experiences.
D) Subcultures may originate in ethnicity, class, region, or religion.
E) Subcultures are mutually exclusive; individuals may not participate in more than one subculture.
Answer: E
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Chapter 3: Applying Anthropology
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Q1) The Samoan community living in Los Angeles has successfully used the matai system to deal with modern urban problems.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) Ethnography is one of applied anthropology's most valuable research tools,because it provides a firsthand account of the lives of ordinary people.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Although its roots extend further back in time,the real boom for applied anthropology in the United States began in the 1970s.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q4) Anthropology has three dimensions: academic,applied,and a mix of the two.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Chapter 4: Doing Archaeology and Biological Anthropology
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Q1) Systematic survey refers to the archaeological technique of systematically digging through the cultural and natural stratigraphy of an archaeological site.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Flotation is a technique used by archaeologists to recover very small remains from an excavation.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Dendrochronology is an absolute dating method based on the comparison of tree-ring growth patterns and is also useful
A) in areas with varying environmental patterns.
B) with any type of tree species.
C) because it provides information about climatic patterns in specific regions.
D) because it provides useful information for protecting water sources.
E) in dating samples of more than 1 million years of age.
Q4) How are fossils formed? Where are they found? How representative is the fossil record?
Q5) In what ways are physical anthropology and archaeology multidisciplinary? Why is this important to know?
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Chapter 5: Evolution and Genetics
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Q1) Darwin proposed the theory of evolution,although the fact of evolution was known well before his work.
A)True
B)False
Q2) One of Gregor Mendel's contributions to genetics was his discovery that traits are inherited as discrete units.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Recessive traits are expressed only in homozygous individuals.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What is the term for the belief that explanations for past events should be sought in ordinary forces that are at work today?
A) uniformitarianism
B) speciation
C) creationism
D) recombination
E) catastrophism
Q5) Give an example of how punctuated equilibrium would work.
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Chapter 6: Human Variation and Adaptation
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Q1) According to Thomson's nose rule,longer noses are more adaptive to colder climates than shorter ones.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The role of natural selection in producing variation in human skin color illustrates the explanatory approach to explaining human biological diversity.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Recent DNA analysis of Australian Aborigines has revealed that their ancestors branched off from ancestral Europeans and Asians 70,000 to 50,000 years ago.This research indicates
A) Aborigines developed a dark skin color independently from Africans.
B) Australian Aborigines are direct descendants of the first modern humans to leave Africa.
C) Aboriginal Australians have a more recent population history than Europeans.
D) Aborigines maintained regular contact with people from other continents.
E) Ancestral Aborigines had cultural but not genetic isolation.
Q4) How does the concept of race used by anthropologists today differ from the concept used by early biologists?
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Chapter 7: The Primates
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Q1) Chimpanzees' social networks involve complex systems of dominance relationships.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following is NOT a threat to endangered primates?
A) interspecies conflict
B) deforestation
C) "bush meat" production
D) subsistence farming
E) poachers
Q3) Which of the following suggests that primates became primates by adapting to life in the trees?
A) visual predation hypothesis
B) terrestrial theory
C) deciduous hypothesis
D) mixed diet hypothesis
E) arboreal theory
Q4) Opposable thumbs evolved as early primates adapted to terrestrial life.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 8: Early Hominins
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Q1) Although the first hominins appeared late in the Miocene,most hominin fossils have been dated to
A) 20 to 15 m.y.a.
B) the Holocene.
C) the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs.
D) the early Miocene.
E) 400,000 to 300,000 years ago.
Q2) A characteristic trend in hominin evolution has been an increase in brain size,especially with the advent of the genus Homo.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The discovery of Sahelanthropus tchadensis (Toumai)indicates that early hominid evolution was not confined to East Africa's Rift Valley.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The dentition of Australopithecus afarensis exhibits some similarities to the dentition of modern chimpanzees.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 9: Archaic Homo
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Q1) The recent hominin fossil finds from Ileret,Kenya,negate the conventional view held since 1960 that H.habilis and H.erectus evolved one after the other.Instead,they lived side by side in eastern Africa for perhaps half a million years.
A)True
B)False
Q2) In addition to their stocky bodies,which were adapted to conserve heat,Neandertals made clothes,developed elaborate tools,and hunted reindeer,mammoths,and woolly rhinos in order to adapt to the cold climate in Europe during the Würm glaciation.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The recent Dmanisi fossil finds suggest a rapid spread,by 1.77 m.y.a.,of early Homo out of Africa into Eurasia.
A)True
B)False
Q4) How do biological changes in H.erectus reflect new cultural adaptive strategies? How do these relate to H.erectus's capacity to extend the hominin range beyond Africa to Asia and Europe?
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Chapter 10: The Origin and Spread of Modern Humans
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Q1) The evidence from the Mount Carmel caves in Israel indicates that anatomically modern humans may have inhabited the Middle East before the Neandertals did.
A)True
B)False
Q2) All of the following characterized the changeover from the Mousterian to the Upper Paleolithic EXCEPT
A) growth in Homo's total population and geographic range.
B) an increase in the number of distinct tool types, reflecting functional specialization.
C) marked social and economic stratification among members of society.
D) increasing local cultural diversity as people specialized in particular economic activities.
E) increasing standardization in tool manufacture.
Q3) Which of the following is NOT a general trend in hominin evolution?
A) a greater reliance on cultural means of adaptation
B) an increase in the quantity and quality of tools
C) an increase in cranial capacity
D) a greater reliance on biological means of adaptation
E) population growth
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Chapter 11: The First Farmers
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Q1) In the Middle East,sedentism developed before plants and animals were domesticated.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The geography of the Old World facilitated the diffusion of plants,animals,technology,and information.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Corn,beans,and squash were the major crops to be domesticated in Mexico.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The domestication of plants and animals for food independently occurred in both the Old World and the Americas approximately 11,000 years ago.
A)True
B)False
Q5) In the New World,sedentism occurred before domestication.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 12: The First Cities and States
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Q1) Which of the following statements about Catalhoyuk is NOT true?
A) Food was stored and processed collectively, with a priestly elite managing these activities.
B) The dwellings at the site were entered through the roof.
C) The ritual life there was centered on animals, danger, and death.
D) The dead were buried beneath the house floors.
E) It never became a full-fledged city with centralized organization.
Q2) States mark their environments by building long-lasting monumental architecture.Which of the following is NOT one of the "Seven Wonders of the Ancient World?"
A) Great Pyramid of Giza
B) Hanging Gardens of Babylon
C) Temple of Artemis
D) Serpent Mound of Ohio
E) Lighthouse of Alexandria
Q3) Why do states collapse? How have the models archaeologists use to understand the process of collapse changed over time? Use the Maya decline as an example.
Q4) How are chiefdoms different from states? How do archaeologists distinguish between the two?
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Chapter 13: Method and Theory in Cultural Anthropology
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Q1) In survey research,a sample should
A) include the entire population in question.
B) include anyone who will be interviewed by the ethnographer.
C) target only one social, cultural, or environmental factor that influences behavior.
D) be constituted so as to allow inferences about the larger population.
E) be invariant.
Q2) 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
Q3) When an ethnographer uses an interview schedule to gather information from the field,the researcher's capacity to ask and answer truly relevant questions is inevitably limited.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What is the genealogical method,and why did it develop in anthropology?
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Chapter 14: Language and Communication
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Sample Questions
Q1) What term refers to the existence of "high" and "low" dialects within a single language?
A) displacement
B) diglossia
C) semantics
D) kinesics
E) lexicon
Q2) Which of the following was studied by Sapir and Whorf?
A) the interaction of thought and surface structure
B) the influence of language on thought
C) the influence of deep structure on surface structure
D) the influence of deep structure on semantic domains
E) the influence of culture on language
Q3) Which of the following statements about chimpanzee call systems is NOT true?
A) They consist of a limited number of sounds.
B) Like language, they include displacement and cultural transmission.
C) They consist of sounds that vary in intensity and duration.
D) Calls cannot be combined when multiple stimuli are present.
E) They are stimuli dependent.
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Chapter 15: Ethnicity and Race
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Q1) Nation-states
A) are defined by their lack of ethnic identity.
B) are ethnically homogeneous.
C) are the same as tribes and ethnic groups.
D) are parts of other states.
E) sometimes encourage ethnic divisions for political and economic ends.
Q2) Race,like ethnicity in general,is
A) a cultural category rather than a biological reality.
B) a biological reality as much as a cultural one.
C) used by social scientists to classify humans based on genes and shared blood.
D) poorly understood by geneticists and therefore considered a cultural category.
E) a meaningless concept to people living day to day.
Q3) What is the term for ethnic groups that once had,or wish to have or regain,autonomous political status?
A) ethnicities
B) captive nations
C) nations
D) nationalities
E) ethnic avengers
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Chapter 16: Making a Living
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Q1) 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.
Q2) How is a rent fund different from a subsistence fund? Cite examples to clarify your argument.
Q3) Which of the following statements about irrigation is NOT true?
A) Irrigated fields typically increase in value through time.
B) Irrigation is one of the defining characteristics of foraging societies.
C) Irrigation usually enriches the soil.
D) The Betsileo of Madagascar used irrigation intensively.
E) Irrigation fields are labor intensive compared to swidden (burned over) fields.
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Chapter 17: Political Systems
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Q1) In which of the following forms of political organization is it most likely that the most important leaders will acquire their positions based upon personal background or ability,rather than heredity?
A) tribal societies
B) feudal states
C) imagined communities
D) chiefdoms
E) agrarian, preindustrial states
Q2) Which of the following statements about political leaders in foraging bands is true?
A) They maintain power by keeping up strong ties with the commoner class.
B) They have inherited special access to strategic resources.
C) They maintain control by conquering foreign territories.
D) They have no means of forcing people to follow their decisions.
E) They are the most dominant males in the largest, most powerful descent group.
Q3) In chiefdoms,individuals are ranked according to seniority,but everyone is believed to be descended from a common set of ancestors.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 18: Gender
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Q1) What position do most anthropologists take on the matter of whether male dominance is a cultural universal? What is your own view on the matter? What evidence can you put forth to support your view?
Q2) With the baby boom and the increase in industrialization,women have contributed more and more to the workplace while receiving pay equal to that of their male coworkers.
A)True
B)False
Q3) In the United States,attitudes regarding the role of women in the workplace have varied according to economic needs.
A)True
B)False
Q4) 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?
Q5) Are certain sexual preferences more natural than others? What factors compel some societies to deviate from the heterosexual norm found in most human societies?
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Chapter 19: Families, Kinship, and Descent
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Q1) The higher proportion of expanded family households among poorer Americans has been explained as an adaptation to poverty.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Traditionally,in some areas of the former Yugoslavia,several nuclear families were embedded in an extended family household called a zadruga.Among the Nayar in southern India,it was typical for people to live in matrilineal extended family compounds called tarawads.Descriptions of these two culturally specific cases highlight how
A) children who grow up in stable kin groups are better off than those who don't.
B) the nuclear family is the only stable kin group arrangement.
C) nuclear families are extremely rare in terms of living arrangements.
D) extended family households are an adaptive strategy to extreme poverty.
E) there are many alternatives to the nuclear family.
Q3) After reaching an all-time low for the 20<sup>th</sup> 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
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Chapter 20: Marriage
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Q1) Cultures have different definitions and expectations of relationships that are biologically or genetically equivalent.In other words,kinship is socially constructed.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The children of your father's sister are called your cross cousins.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Homogamy is the practice of marrying within a culturally prescribed group to which one does not belong.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Polygynous marriages often serve important economic and political functions,with the number of wives a man has serving as an indicator of his wealth,prestige,and status.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Incest is a cultural universal that is defined the same way by all cultures.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 21: Religion
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Q1) 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
Q2) The Hindu principle of ahimsa functions to ensure that cattle milk production is maximized.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Besides animism-and sometimes coexisting with it in the same society-there is a view of the supernatural as a domain of raw impersonal power,or force,that people can control under certain conditions.This conception of the supernatural is particularly prominent in Melanesia.Melanesians refer to this force as
A) taboo.
B) magic.
C) good (or bad) luck.
D) The Force.
E) mana.
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Chapter 22: Arts, Media, and Sports
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Q1) The oldest known musical instrument,the "Divje babe flute," dates back to more than 43,000 years ago.
A)True
B)False
Q2) To what extent can art be isolated from the person who created it? Be sure to include cross-cultural examples to support your answer.
Q3) There is more collective production and performance of art in non-Western societies than in Western,industrialized states.
A)True
B)False
Q4) ________ is synonymous with the arts.
A) Social creativity
B) Aesthetics
C) Myth
D) Expressive culture
E) Performance
Q5) Consider the impact the media have on your daily life.From what sources do you have access to popular culture? Which are your favorites,and why?
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Chapter 23: The World System and Colonialism
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Q1) Postsocialist Russia's economy was growing again by 2010,as were its birth rate and average life expectancy.
A)True
B)False
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 Marx,who are the bourgeoisie and the proletariat?
A) the products of gender differentiation from Europe's tribal past
B) groups destined to reconcile through the postcapitalist process of alienation
C) distinct and opposed classes produced by the world capitalist economy
D) exogamous social groups
E) moiety groups that dominated Western capitalism
Q4) Mass production has led to critical consumption as people are forced to make careful decisions regarding what is needed and what is excess.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What is the world system perspective,and why is it important in anthropology?
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Chapter 24: Anthropologys Role in a Globalizing World
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Q1) What are some of the arguments for and against the interpretation of the mass media as forms of cultural imperialism?
Q2) Because our planet's climate is always changing,the key question becomes,how much of global warming is caused by human activities versus natural climate variability? On this issue,most scientists agree that the causes are mainly
A) evolutionary.
B) ecological.
C) anthropogenic.
D) moral.
E) indigenized.
Q3) Identities are not fixed; they are fluid and multiple.People seize on particular,sometimes competing,self-labels and identities,depending on context.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Forces influencing production and consumption are no longer restricted by national boundaries.
A)True
B)False
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