Introduction to Cultural Anthropology Study Guide Questions
Course Introduction
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology explores the diverse ways in which people around the world live, think, and interact. Students will examine fundamental concepts such as culture, society, kinship, language, religion, economics, and politics through a comparative and cross-cultural lens. The course addresses how cultural beliefs and practices shape individual identities and social structures, and analyzes key issues including globalization, inequality, and cultural change. Through readings, discussions, and case studies, students will gain critical tools for understanding human similarities and differences in an increasingly interconnected world.
Recommended Textbook Mirror for Humanity A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology 7th Edition by Conrad Phillip
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Chapter 1: What Is Anthropology
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Q1) Natural selection is the process by which the forms least fit to survive and reproduce in a given environment do so in greater numbers than others in the same population.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) Higher amounts of melanin in the skin inhibit the body's ability to manufacture vitaminD.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Culture is not itself biological, but it rests on certain features of human biology.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q4) Anthropologists study only non-Western cultures.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Chapter 2: Culture
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Q1) By definition, a symbol has an intrinsic and natural link to the thing it signifies.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) Which of the following statements about cultural relativism is not true?
A)Cultural relativism argues that cultural values vary between cultures.
B)Cultural relativism argues that some cultures are relatively better than others.
C)Cultural relativism argues that we shouldn't use our own standards to judge conduct in other cultures.
D)Cultural relativism argues that no one culture is better than any other.
E)Cultural relativism argues that each culture is a unique, integrated whole.
Answer: B
Q3) Cultural generalities may arise through independent invention, when people in different societies devise similar solutions to comparable problems or challenges.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 3: Doing Anthropology
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Q1) In survey research, what is sampling?
A)The collection of a representative sample of a larger population
B)The interviewing of a small number of key cultural consultants
C)Participant observation
D)The collection of life histories of every member in a community
E)The recording of the emic perspective
Answer: A
Q2) Rapport is important to establish quickly to be an effective participant observer.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) The mass media can cause people to use outside information in interpreting local conditions.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 4: Language and Communication
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Q1) Which statement about nonhuman primate calls is not true?
A)They occur in response to environmental stimuli.
B)Calls demonstrate linguistic productivity.
C)They are automatic and cannot be combined.
D)Calls vary in intensity and duration.
E)Call systems produce a limited number of sounds.
Q2) The frequency with which people smile varies cross-culturally.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Historical linguists study similarities and differences between languages spoken today in order to make inferences about long-term linguistic change.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Syntax refers to the rules that dictate the order of words in a language.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Phonology is the study of speech sounds.
A)True
B)False
Q6) What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis? To what extent is it valid?
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Making a Living
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Q1) What is a potlatch?
A)A festive event where the sponsors give away gifts and gain prestige in return
B)A fastening device for the first pottery to keep animals out of the food
C)A harvest festival in agricultural cultures
D)A lock for the outhouse that is shaped like a pot
E)A rite of intensification to solidify group bonds
Q2) How does economic specialization in industrial nations differ from specialization in nonindustrial societies?
Q3) Intensive agriculture has the benefit of increasing ecological diversity.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Horticulture makes intensive use of A)labor.
B)land.
C)machinery.
D)capital.
E)none of the factors of production.
Q5) How is a rent fund different from a subsistence fund? Cite examples to illustrate your argument.
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Chapter 6: Political Systems
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Q1) The most inhumane, coercive, and degrading form of stratification is
A)proletarianism.
B)vertical mobility.
C)slavery.
D)an open-class system.
E)capitalism.
Q2) What kind of exchange principle was prominent in Polynesian chiefdoms?
A)Market principle
B)Redistribution
C)Generalized reciprocity
D)Balanced reciprocity
E)Negative reciprocity
Q3) How do anthropologists distinguish between a chiefdom and a state? Is this a useful distinction? Is it always easy to make such a distinction?
Q4) The elites of archaic states enjoyed restricted access to sumptuary goods.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What factors are responsible for the variable development of political regulation and authority structures among pastoralists?
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Chapter 7: Families, Kinship, and Marriage
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Q1) Members of a clan claim (but cannot demonstrate) descent from a common apical ancestor.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Polygynous marriages often serve important economic and political functions; for instance, the number of wives a man has may be an indicator of his wealth, prestige, and status.
A)True
B)False
Q3) With patrilineal descent, a person takes her or his father's last name but recognizes descent through both parents.
A)True
B)False
Q4) A progeny price is paid to the bride's family so that her children permanently belong to the husband's group.
A)True
B)False
Q5) How does divorce vary cross-culturally? What factors affect the ease (or difficulty) and frequency of divorce?
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Chapter 8: Gender
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Q1) Gender stratification refers to an unequal distribution of socially valued resources, power, prestige, and personal freedom between men and women.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Cross-cultural studies indicate that
A)in nearly all societies men contribute much more to subsistence than women do.
B)a gender-based division of labor is very uncommon.
C)in most societies women tend to be the primary child caregivers.
D)women generally are less restricted than men are with respect to premarital and extramarital sex.
E)men never contribute to child care.
Q3) Gender stratification tends to be extreme in patrilineal-patrilocal societies.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What is the domestic-public dichotomy? In what kinds of societies is it more pronounced? Less pronounced (or even nonexistent)? How is it related to gender stratification?
Q5) What effects did the advent of agriculture have on the roles and status of women?
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Chapter 9: Religion
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Q1) What did Handsome Lake initiate among the Iroquois at the beginning of the 19th century?
A)A shamanistic cult
B)A revitalization movement
C)A rite of passage
D)A structuralist movement
E)A cargo cult
Q2) Induction into the U.S.Marine Corps and the Native American vision quest are examples of
A)revitalization movements.
B)generalized reciprocity.
C)totemism.
D)rites of passage.
E)imitative magic.
Q3) Sequences of words and actions that are used during rituals are known as A)ritual scripts.
B)rites of passage.
C)taboos.
D)liturgical orders.
E)communitas.
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Chapter 10: Ethnicity and Race
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Q1) What is the dominant intervention philosophy today?
A)Neoclassicism
B)Neoimperialism
C)Neosocialism
D)Neocommunism
E)Neoliberalism
Q2) Higher wages and improved benefits for workers in core nations is possible because added surplus from the periphery enables companies to maintain high profit margins.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What is the world-system perspective, and why is it important in anthropology?
Q4) When indigenous peoples are incorporated into modern nation-states, they usually become ethnic minorities.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in England rather than in France?
Q6) The transatlantic slave trade was spurred by European demands for iron ore.
A)True
B)False
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Applying Anthropology
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Q1) The anti-Basque campaign waged during the Franco dictatorship in Spain is an example of
A)forced assimilation.
B)cultural relativism.
C)status ascription.
D)multiculturalism.
E)an imagined community.
Q2) Cultural colonialism is a process of external assimilation that occurs when a developing nation-state requests financial support from a First World nation-state.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Segregation in the southern United States under the "Jim Crow laws" and apartheid in South Africa are examples of
A)situational discrimination
B)genocide
C)assimilation
D)de jure discrimination
E)de facto discrimination
Q4) What is hypodescent? Does it exist in every human society?
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Chapter 12: The World System and Colonialism
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Q1) Development projects are much more likely to succeed if they are based on traditional social organizations and respond to locally perceived needs.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Development anthropology refers to the branch of anthropology that uses data collected in local settings to formulate theories about the development of culture through time.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Human societies are becoming increasingly urban.What are (or will be) some of the effects of increased urbanization? Where are these effects most pronounced? What contributions can applied anthropologists make to urban planning?
Q4) Cultural resource management is an example of applied
A)ethnology.
B)biological anthropology.
C)archaeology.
D)linguistic anthropology.
E)ethnography.
Q5) Discuss ways in which anthropology is relevant to business.
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Chapter 13: Anthropologys Role in a Globalizing World
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Q1) Most migrants live independently, severing all ties to their home communities and identities.
A)True
B)False
Q2) In what area of public policy is autochthony most likely to play a role?
A)Urban planning
B)Mass media
C)Finance
D)Health care reform
E)Immigration policies
Q3) What term refers to changes that result when groups come into continuous firsthand contact?
A)Acculturation
B)Hegemony
C)Enculturation
D)Diaspora
E)Colonialism
Q4) Global warming could be slowed through more efficient use of energy.
A)True
B)False
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