Introduction to Anthropology
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Course Introduction
Introduction to Anthropology explores the diverse nature of humans, their cultures, and societies from a holistic perspective. This course examines the four primary subfields of anthropology: cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, archaeology, and linguistic anthropology. Students will learn foundational theories and methods used to analyze human origins, cultural developments, language, and social structures. Through case studies and comparative analysis, the course encourages critical thinking about globalization, cultural diversity, and the biological and cultural factors that shape human experience, preparing students to understand and appreciate the complexity and interconnectedness of our world.
Recommended Textbook
Cultural Anthropology A Toolkit for a Global Age 2nd Edition by Kenneth J. Guest
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Chapter 1: Anthropology in a Global Age
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Sample Questions
Q1) The huge inflow of refugees from the wars in the Middle East to parts of Europe and Scandinavia has created a lot of social and political problems in those countries where the refugees wind up. What kind of anthropologist would offer useful input to the politicians making decisions about resettlement programs?
A) physical anthropologist
B) cultural anthropologist
C) holistic anthropologist
D) sociolinguist
Answer: B
Q2) Describe how changes in transportation technology in the nineteenth century led to the development of anthropology.
Answer: Advances in transportation technology rapidly transformed long-distance movement of people and goods. This allowed regular travel, trade, and colonization in new and varied places. Merchants, missionaries, and government officials came back with tales and artifacts of the incredible diversity of human cultures and "exotic" appearances they had encountered. Anthropology developed as people began to try to understand this diversity.
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3
Chapter 2: Culture
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Q1) Homogenization is just one of the effects of globalization on cultures around the world. Define homogenization and give at least three examples of it. Are there aspects from other cultures that you now incorporate into your own culture? If so, please provide at least two examples. Do you think that globalization will indeed cause the homogenization of world cultures in the future? Why or why not?
Answer: Students should provide a sufficient definition of homogenization and describe three concrete examples of it. They should be able to discuss new cultural elements that they incorporate into their lives, such as foreign foods, music, media, religious practices, or recreational activities. Students should sufficiently argue that globalization will or will not cause homogenization, providing clear substantiation for the argument.
Q2) In 2015, what was the average level of credit card debt per household?
A) $10,083
B) $15,355
C) $20,225
D) $31,342
Answer: B
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Chapter 3: Fieldwork and Ethnography
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Sample Questions
Q1) Anthropologists conducting fieldwork may experience a particular kind of disorientation from the "strangeness" they discover. What is this often attributable to?
A) ethnographic dissonance
B) culture shock
C) critical self-examination
D) fieldwork block
Answer: B
Q2) Because she has been a community activist and an advocate for her research subjects, what kind of anthropology can we consider the work of Nancy Scheper-Hughes?
A) experimental
B) engaged
C) reflexive
D) medical
Answer: B
Q3) Define zeros and explain their significance for ethnographers.
Answer: Zeros are the elements of a story or picture that are not told or seen; they are key details omitted from the conversation. This omission offers insight into which topics are too sensitive to discuss publicly.
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Language
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Sample Questions
Q1) What term do anthropologists use to refer to small units of sounds that make a critical difference in meaning within a language?
A) paralanguage
B) morphemes
C) phonemes
D) grammar
Q2) Why can we say the events that comprised the Arab Spring are in part a matter of language?
A) The events were facilitated through the use of information technology and are seen as a kind of "digital activism."
B) The Arab Spring served to unify language use in the entire region.
C) In order to rebel, the rebels had to develop a new language that could not be understood by the authorities.
D) Use of cell phones led cell phone manufacturers to create native language apps.
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6
Chapter 5: Human Origins
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Q1) Although DNA provides a blueprint for an individual's growth, other environmental factors such as nutrition and disease can impact the human life cycle. This describes what kind of adaptation?
A) genetic
B) developmental
C) acclimatized
D) cultural
Q2) While a great many of the fossils of our earliest human ancestors have been found in Africa, why is it problematic to use these fossils to make concrete conclusions about our earliest origins?
A) There is unequal representation of time periods and species in the fossil record. B) Dating techniques are still too primitive to establish completely accurate results. C) Rival researchers often draw conflicting conclusions based on their discoveries. D) Many parts of Africa cannot be easily accessed by paleoanthropologists.
Q3) Describe the relationship between solar radiation, vitamin D, and skin color as examples of adaptation and natural selection.
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Chapter 6: Race and Racism
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Q1) A Saint Bernard and a Chihuahua are of the same species but look very different. It is possible to breed the two and get a puppy that might look like something else entirely but still be a dog. The study of dogs might be of interest to an anthropologist because it:
A) could help resolve the question of race.
B) could help us understand the nature of ethnicity.
C) could help us better understand the relationship between genotype and phenotype. D) provides a vital platform for the study of DNA.
Q2) Despite the initial racist attitudes directed toward Irish, Jewish, and Italian immigrants, these groups eventually "became white" through:
A) greater accuracy in the census.
B) intermarriage and upward mobility.
C) the elimination of ethnic categories.
D) legal changes.
Q3) Explain the concept of racialization and how it applies to Middle Eastern people in the United States. Why is this process reflected in the New York school system as studied by Maria Kromidas?
Q4) Explain how and why Jim Crow laws came to the American South.
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Chapter 7: Ethnicity and Nationalism
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Q1) Some Native American groups strategically expand into an "ethno-corporation," chosing to see their ethnicity as ________.
A) an opportunity
B) an independent nation-state
C) a loss
D) American
Q2) Every year, Americans gather in summer to celebrate Independence Day-the Fourth of July. Parades, fireworks, and hot dogs are all part of this annual ritual. What particular component of ethnicity is embodied in this celebration?
A) citizenship status
B) origin myth
C) ethnic boundaries
D) negotiated identity
Q3) In a brief essay, identify three ways that various immigrants from India have created a new and unique Indian American identity in the United States. Is this assimilation or multiculturalism, and why?
Q4) Define ethnic cleansing versus genocide and give an example of each to illustrate your answer.
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Chapter 8: Gender
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Q1) What is one proposed reason for the violence committed against gays, lesbians, and transgender persons?
A) It is a form of asserting heterosexual gender norms.
B) It is a natural reaction to individuals to fall outside the gender binary.
C) It is the result of fundamental Christianity.
D) It is the result of deeply engrained homophobia on a worldwide scale.
Q2) Explain how feminist research on gender stratification and gender roles has changed since Margaret Mead's pioneering research, paying particular attention to the approaches and findings of Sherri Ortner, Michelle Rosaldo, and Annette Weiner. What do we understand about how gender should be studied today?
Q3) What is the preferred term for individuals of an alternate gender in some Native American cultures?
A) hijra
B) hermaphrodite
C) Two-Spirit
D) berdache
Q4) Define the concept of intersex, and explain how physicians' attitudes toward children born intersex have changed in recent decades in parallel with changes in attitudes toward sexuality.
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Chapter 9: Sexuality
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Q1) Philosopher Michel Foucault describes sexuality as "an especially dense transfer point for relations of power." Discuss his claim. How does the private act of sex become a transfer point for power? What are the public channels in which we might expect to observe this process?
Q2) In the research by anthropologist Denise Brennan, both Dominican sex workers and the sex tourists have fantasies that define their work. What do many sex workers fantasize about?
A) marrying a tourist and starting a new life
B) creating transnational economic links for themselves
C) persuading a sex tourist to remain in the area for a long period of time
D) connecting with the hotel where the sex tourist is staying to find work
Q3) What have geneticists found regarding the genetic code and human sexual orientation?
A) There are clusters of "gay" and "straight" genes that determine sexual orientation.
B) There is a "gay" gene but not a "straight" gene.
C) There is a "straight" gene but not a "gay" gene.
D) There is no gene or cluster of genes that determines sexual orientation.
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Page 11
Chapter 10: Kinship, Family, and Marriage
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Q1) Kinship is the most effective strategy that humans have developed to form stable, reliable, separate, and deeply connected groups that can last over time and through generations. What comprises the system of kinship?
A) permanence and meaning
B) meaning and power
C) lineage and stability
D) power and lineage
Q2) Which of the following types of descent groups traces kinship through both the mother and the father?
A) ambilineal
B) unilineal
C) polylineal
D) bilineal
Q3) According to Melanie Medeiros, what happened to marriage patterns in Brogodo, Brazil, as the tourism industry created more economic opportunities for women?
A) Divorce rates increased.
B) Divorce rates decreased.
C) Same-sex marriage increased.
D) Same-sex marriage decreased.
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Chapter 11: Class and Inequality
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Q1) Of all the systems of stratification and power in a society, which of the following is often considered the most difficult to see clearly and to discuss openly?
A) race
B) ethnicity
C) gender
D) class
Q2) Street vendors in Bolivia are very common but technically illegal. They often remain in poverty, despite working hard to sell their wares. What does anthropologist Daniel Goldstein suggest as a cause of their continued poverty?
A) inconsistencies in the enforcement of laws among the urban poor
B) a lack of transportation infrastructure that adversely affects the poor
C) the high cost of vendor licenses due to corruption
D) the outsourcing of labor to other countries
Q3) Aside from access to financial resources, what most influences an individual's life chances?
A) intellectual ability and physical strength
B) access to social resources such as education
C) ambition to seize the means of production
D) access to gainful employment
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Chapter 12: The Global Economy
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Q1) Why is Haiti considered a significant former colony?
A) It was the first nation to gain independence from a colonial power.
B) It was the first independent former colony to be ruled by people of African descent.
C) It was an example of a highly profitable colony.
D) Widespread migration from Haiti to Britain occurred after independence.
Q2) Bangladesh's costal floodplain has been repeatedly inundated with monsoons, flooding, and devastating erosion. How does the nation of Bangladesh illustrate the problems of development and how it relates to environmental challenges?
A) Governments alone cannot change the pattern of environmental destruction.
B) Past programs designed to help poor nations have been failures.
C) Poorer nations suffer the consequences of climate change in ways that developed nations do not.
D) Poor nations are not well equipped to manage economic growth.
Q3) Explain the controversies associated with neoliberal policies. What is the reasoning behind structural adjustment policies? Use two examples from Jamaica to discuss problems associated with structural adjustment.
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Page 14
Chapter 13: Migration
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Q1) Very different forces lead to a decision to migrate. Job opportunities, educational opportunities, and access to health care as well as poverty, famine, war, disease, and religious oppression are all factors in two very different kinds of force. What are the two terms used by anthropologists to describe these two forces that lead to migration?
A) push; pull
B) compel; drive
C) bridge; barrier
D) dissuade; persuade
Q2) What do we call the economic resources that are transferred from migrants to family members or institutions in their country of origin?
A) smuggling
B) remittances
C) transactions
D) economic diversification
Q3) Discuss how migration is often not an individual choice but rather one that occurs at the household level. How and why do households and families contribute to individual migrations? How do economic processes surrounding remittances influence the migration patterns and possibilities for migrant families?
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Chapter 14: Politics and Power
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Q1) The Maasai, who live outside the direct control of the government of Tanzania, have had to form their own nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to achieve goals that their state government neglected. Today they might be known as what kind of group?
A) ethnic group
B) autonomous state
C) band
D) chiefdom
Q2) Describe the concept of agency and how it works, and give an example that illustrates this concept.
Q3) In the United States, most Americans believe that it is wrong to hire family members who may not be qualified for a position. The idea of nepotism, or a family member over a more qualified candidate, seems unthinkable and undoable to many Americans. This is an example of what concept?
A) agency
B) dogma
C) coercion
D) hegemony
Q4) In a brief essay, describe three ways power is wielded outside the control of the state.
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Chapter 15: Religion
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Q1) The anthropologist's task when examining religion is to try to capture the vivid inner life, sense of moral order, dynamic public expressions, and interactions with other systems of meaning and power. Based on your own experiences, how does religion inform an individual's inner life, sense of moral order, dynamic public expressions, and interactions with other systems of meaning and power? How does religion inform these aspects on a cultural or social level? What is the underlying purpose of religion within a cultural group or society? What do anthropologists have to offer to the exploration and understanding of world religions?
Q2) The text describes the Muslim saint shrine of Husain Tekri and how people of many different faiths come to the shrine for healing rituals. The people traveling to the shrine are:
A) seeking conversion.
B) making a pilgrimage.
C) experiencing communitas.
D) experiencing liminality.
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Chapter 16: Health, Illness, and the Body
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Q1) The fact that people will inevitably die or grow old reflects which important concept?
A) Ability is only temporary.
B) Average life expectancies are on the rise.
C) The United States has poor hospice care.
D) Only some people experience disability.
Q2) In his book The Body Silent, anthropologist Robert Murphy documents quadriplegia that left him wheelchair-bound. From this experience, what does Murphy conclude is the "ultimate purpose for our species"?
A) child rearing
B) the struggle for autonomy
C) education
D) creating community
Q3) ________ is the embodied experience of people with impairments as shaped by broader forms of social inequality.
A) Illness
B) Disease
C) Sickness
D) Disability
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Chapter 17: Art and Media
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Q1) The author states that in addition to its aesthetic content, people also use artistic expression to express a wide range of emotions and sentiments, including frustration with the status quo. Define the term popular art, and explain why the rara festivals in Haiti are an example of this form of expression. Describe who participates in a rara performance and provide two specific examples of how these performances allow the participants to express their religious beliefs and frustration with social and political inequality in Haiti.
Q2) Jessica Winegar studied post-9/11 attempts by institutions to bridge cultural differences with media. What category was rarely featured at the exhibits designed to improve relations?
A) historical art
B) female artists
C) male artists
D) music and rituals of Sufism
Q3) Evaluate this statement: "As people become frustrated with the lack of intimacy provided by electronic technologies, this form of communication will become less important in coming decades." Is it true or false? Use examples from the text to support your conclusion.
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