Human Societies
Textbook Exam Questions
Course Introduction
This course explores the complex structures, relationships, and dynamics that define human societies across history and cultures. Students will examine key concepts such as social norms, institutions, cultural practices, and patterns of social organization. Through comparative analysis, the course investigates how factors like technology, economy, religion, and environment influence the development and transformation of societies. By engaging with case studies and interdisciplinary perspectives, students will gain a deeper understanding of the diversity and interconnectedness of human social life.
Recommended Textbook
Cultural Anthropology 9th Edition by Raymond Scupin
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2
Chapter 1: Introduction to Anthropology
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Q1) Because of the methods they use, anthropologists avoid interpreting their research results from a global perspective.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) A paleoanthropologist would be most likely to study __________.
A) fossilized human bones of early human ancestors
B) prehistoric tools from a midden in Costa Rica
C) a primitive tribe in the rainforests of Zaire
D) archival data from church records in Finland
Answer: A
Q3) Anthropology courses are more relevant to students interested in obtaining degrees in business than those pursuing careers in education.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Chapter 2: Human Evolution
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Sample Questions
Q1) The term "composite tool" refers to an artifact made by __________.
A) firing clay into a hard material
B) using bone or antler to remove thin flakes
C) putting two or more materials together
D) several different people
Answer: C
Q2) Which of the following is an adaptive advantage of darker skin pigmentation?
A) preserving a healthy amount of vitamin B complex needed for reproduction
B) increased production of vitamin D
C) better regulation of body heat
D) eliminating the need for tanning and reducing the risk of freckling
Answer: A
Q3) During the Upper Paleolithic period, modern Homo sapiens migrated throughout the world, including North and South America and Australia.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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4
Chapter 3: Culture
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to Dan Sperber, the way culture is shared can be understood by analogy to which of the following?
A) the transmission of disease, or an epidemiological model
B) the use of symbols to represent one's nationality, or a citizenship model
C) the use of environmental resources, or an ecological model
D) the evolution of the species, or a genetic inheritance model
Answer: A
Q2) An example of a social "more" would be __________.
A) eating with a knife, fork, and spoon
B) not appearing nude in public
C) inviting the neighbors over for a barbecue
D) forgetting to thank the hostess for inviting you
Answer: B
Q3) According to Marvin Harris, the dietary practices of various cultures may be rooted in ecological conditions.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 4: Psychological and Cognitive Anthropology
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Sample Questions
Q1) Most anthropologists have come to agree that human behavior __________.
A) is mostly determined by genetic inheritance
B) is usually automatic and instinctual
C) results from learning only
D) results from a combination of biology and culture
Q2) Anthropologists have discovered that children raised together in Israeli kibbutzim __________.
A) will usually have successful marriages to one another as adults
B) do not make good marriage partners for one another
C) have a natural tendency toward homosexuality
D) tend to have little appreciation for nuclear families
Q3) Enculturation completely determines a person's personality and behavior.
A)True B)False
Q4) Humans cannot ignore or override their basic, inborn drives. A)True B)False
Q5) Culture allows humans to adjust to a wide range of physical environments. A)True
B)False
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Chapter 5: Language
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Q1) The gorilla named "Koko" was able to __________.
A) speak and communicate by using over 100 English words
B) learn to program a computer using the computer language called FORTRAN
C) communicate using about 1,000 signs from American Sign Language (ASL)
D) write her own name and verbally communicate her needs to humans
Q2) According to Herbert Terrace's research, chimpanzees are highly intelligent animals that can learn many signs, but cannot understand syntax.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The words "boy" and "girl" are __________.
A) bound phonemes
B) bound morphemes
C) free morphemes
D) bound phones
Q4) The word "lower" contains __________.
A) two bound morphemes
B) two bound phonemes
C) two free morphemes
D) one bound morpheme and one free morpheme
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Chapter 6: Anthropological Explanations
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Q1) Feminist anthropologists agree that monogamy is preferred by women because of its sociobiological advantages.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The cultural ecological perspective of cultural evolution focuses on how specific sociocultural systems adapt to environmental conditions.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Functionalism is weak in which of the following areas?
A) explaining why cultural institutions change
B) proposing purposes for cultural practices
C) describing the psychological effects of cultural traditions
D) recognizing how different aspects of a society are integrated
Q4) According to Bronislaw Malinowski, magic __________.
A) has a basis in the existence of supernatural powers in all cultures
B) functions to relieve the anxieties of individuals
C) only works when it has the full participation of a given society
D) has no useful purpose for thinking people
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Chapter 7: Analyzing Sociocultural Systems
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Q1) Jack Goody and Eric Wolf point to the importance of __________ as a factor in the success of the European Industrial Revolution.
A) agriculture
B) highly intelligent individuals
C) military power
D) long-distance trade
Q2) The general categories used by anthropologists to describe different political systems are hunter-gatherers, horticulturalists, agriculturalists, and industrialists.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What are the general characteristics of band societies? How are contemporary band societies different from those that existed during the Paleolithic?
Q4) Which of the following is linked with the holistic perspective in anthropology?
A) informant interviews
B) culture shock
C) multivariate hypotheses
D) independent variables
Q5) What are the benefits and limitations of conducting cross-cultural research?
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Chapter 8: Environment, Subsistence, and Demography
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Q1) Describe pastoralist subsistence patterns. What types of environments do pastoralists inhabit today? How do they make use of natural resources? Include a discussion of the East African cattle complex in your answer.
Q2) What is one of the chief advantages of slash-and-burn cultivation?
A) It involves a huge labor force in converting forest to agricultural fields.
B) It can be carried out indefinitely on a single plot of land.
C) It produces food without complex technology.
D) It is effective in virtually any environment.
Q3) The Semang of Malaysia, who hunt with blowguns, get most of their meat from
A) elephants and buffalo
B) kangaroos and the ostrich-like emu
C) fish and other small game
D) monkeys and crocodiles
Q4) Compare and contrast horticulture and intensive agriculture in terms of how the environment is used to meet subsistence needs. Illustrate with cross-cultural examples.
Q5) What is the demographic transition? Explain why this transition takes place and the conditions that affect it. Support your answer with specific details.
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Chapter 9: Technology and Economies
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Q1) All forager groups have a concept of private land ownership that is similar to that found in Western societies.
A)True
B)False
Q2) During a potlatch among the Northwest Coast Indians, the more gifts that were given or destroyed by a chief, the higher his status.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which of the following might be interpreted as a modern example of the potlatch?
A) A local politician gives away hundreds of frozen turkeys at a campaign rally.
B) A special interest group pays the salary and expenses of a lobbyist.
C) A former president makes speeches in favor of his party's new candidate.
D) Delegates at a national convention trade buttons and other campaign memorabilia.
Q4) Compare and contrast land use and ownership among nomadic foraging and pastoralist groups. How is access to land determined in these two types of societies? In what ways are they similar? What are some of the differences? How are circumstances changed in today's global economy?
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11
Chapter 10: Social Structure, The Family, Gender, and Age
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Q1) What is the relationship between postmarital residence rules and the form of descent found in a society? How did patrilocal and matrilocal residence patterns arise? What is the possible relationship between warfare and residence rules?
Q2) Brideservice occurs when an eligible woman offers her domestic services to her future or potential husband's family in exchange for allowing her to marry their son.
A)True
B)False
Q3) As illustrated by the Natchez Indians of the Mississippi region, marriage in chiefdom societies often __________.
A) resulted in divorce because the couples were too tired and stressed from the daily obligations imposed on them by the chief
B) resulted in males marrying other males in order for them to gain higher rank and status in the society
C) provided a systematic form of social mobility, especially for women
D) lacked ritual, since marriages were not important to the social order of chiefdoms
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Chapter 11: Politics, Warfare, and Law
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Sample Questions
Q1) Leaders of bands are usually males who are elected by majority vote and rule by coercion and intimidation.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Archaeologist Timothy Earle suggests that the key factor in the evolution of chiefdoms was which of the following?
A) regional symbiosis managed by descent groups
B) ceremonial trade and regional religious beliefs
C) control by individuals over resources and human labor
D) the storage and redistribution of food
Q3) What are codified laws? How do they differ from other social controls? How and why do anthropologists think they evolved?
Q4) Unlike the political organization of tribes and bands, chiefdom political structures are well-defined, corporate entities.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Explain why many traditional Polynesian societies are characterized as chiefdoms and not tribes or bands. Use specific details to support your answer.
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Chapter 12: Religion and Aesthetics
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Q1) The political and legal authority of Hawaiian, Tongan, and Tahitian chiefs was reinforced by a religious and ideological system based on social inequalities. This system was called __________.
A) mana
B) tabu
C) potlatch
D) kula
Q2) How have anthropologists influenced understandings of art and music? How have these understandings then influenced the work that artists do in today's postindustrial societies? Illustrate your answer with specific examples.
Q3) Katchina dolls are specially crafted playthings that teach Zuni children about their future contribution to subsistence.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What religious trends have anthropologists noticed in industrial and postindustrial societies? What accounts for these trends? What other aspects of culture are reflected in these trends?
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Chapter 13: Globalization, Culture, and Indigenous Societies
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Q1) The Ju/'hoansi San were protected from exploitation and assimilation by the South African government.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The displacement of Native Americans from their tribal lands in the United States in order to make the land available to white settlers was __________.
A) accomplished mostly by outlaws and hired guns
B) a formal policy of the U.S. government
C) a myth invented by radical Indian activists
D) undertaken mostly by foreign immigrants
Q3) One of the preconditions for modernization is the acceptance of the belief that progress is both necessary and beneficial to society and the individual.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Mbuti pygmies have adapted well to a lifestyle based on mining and farming. A)True
B)False
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Chapter 14: Globalization in Latin America,Africa, and the Caribbean
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Q1) How did European colonization of Africa and Latin America influence ethnicity in each area? How were the effects similar or different? How do they tie into other economic, political, and social circumstances?
Q2) What is meant by the term "dyadic contract"? Give some examples of the kinds of dyadic contracts that exist in Latin American culture. Have you ever had experience with a dyadic contract? Describe either your personal experience or an example of a dyadic contract in your own culture.
Q3) The typical Yoruba household consists of a man, his wife, and their unmarried children.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The Afrikaners and the Boers of South Africa came from England.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What is the status of women in African societies? What are some of the differences in women's roles within urban and rural settings?
Q6) Guatemala and Honduras were colonized by the Portuguese.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 15: Globalization in the Middle East and Asia
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Q1) Which of the following best defines the caste system in India?
A) a hierarchical organization of social groups based on birth group
B) a system of rural economic transactions based on reciprocity
C) a political organization run by educated peasants
D) a method of processing wheat in rural India
Q2) Anthropologists have little insight to offer in situations of large-scale ethnic conflict since all fieldwork is conducted on the level of the village.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The monarchy of Thailand was successful in which of the following?
A) avoiding all Western influence
B) adopting some Western innovations and playing the British against the French
C) developing an exclusive trade relationship with the British Empire
D) protecting neighboring countries from colonization
Q4) The colonization of China in the nineteenth century was facilitated by the desire of the government to import Western goods and technology.
A)True
B)False
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17
Chapter 16: Ethnicity
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Q1) Which anthropologist is associated with the primordial model of ethnicity?
A) Clifford Geertz
B) Franz Boas
C) Fredrik Barth
D) E. B. Tylor
Q2) The confusion between the concepts of "race" and "culture" has been a fundamental misconception in the Western worldview.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Until the 1950s, it was illegal to give a blood transfusion from a black person to a white person in some parts of the United States.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Multiculturalism means that a person can easily switch between two or more cultures without getting confused and frustrated.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 17: Contemporary Global Trends
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Q1) What types of contributions can anthropologists make by studying ethnic conflict and separatism? What perspective can anthropologists take in this endeavor?
Q2) Anthropologists can probably aid in humankind's understanding of its existence in the global village by making a concerted effort to comprehend the historical and sociocultural incentives and roots that contribute to ethnic conflicts.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which of the following countries is likely to have the lowest per capita energy consumption?
A) Sudan
B) Japan
C) Mexico
D) Canada
Q4) What is the demographic-transition theory? Do you think that this model applies to all cultures in the world? Why or why not?
Q5) What are the advantages of biodiversity? What role are humans playing in the threat to biodiversity? Describe the roles anthropologists could play in preserving biodiversity.
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Chapter 18: Applied Anthropology
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Q1) An applied anthropologist who, rather than just providing data about a culture to an organization or government, engages in the actual development of policy is performing which of the following roles?
A) facilitator
B) analyst
C) informant
D) mediator
Q2) What is NAGPRA? Discuss the opposing interests of museums and Native American descendant populations. How do you think the issues over repatriation and reburial would best be resolved and why?
Q3) What is cultural resource management? Why is it important? Support your answer with specific examples.
Q4) When an archaeological site is destroyed, it can often be replaced or renewed.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Applied anthropologists can serve as consultants to government organizations, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
A)True
B)False
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