Social and Cultural Anthropology Exam Review
Course Introduction
Social and Cultural Anthropology explores the diverse ways in which people live and make sense of their worlds, focusing on the study of social structures, cultural practices, belief systems, and identities across different societies. The course examines key concepts such as kinship, religion, economy, power, and symbolism while critically analyzing how these elements shape human experiences and interactions. Students are introduced to ethnographic methods, classic and contemporary anthropological theories, and are encouraged to reflect on the ethical dimensions of cross-cultural research, enabling a deeper understanding of the complexities of human society in a globalized world.
Recommended Textbook
Anthropology Appreciating Human Diversity 16th Edition by Conrad Kottak
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Chapter 1: What Is Anthropology
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Q1) Today's global economy and communications link all contemporary people,directly or indirectly,in the modern world system.People must now cope with forces generated by progressively larger systems-the region,the nation,and the world.For anthropologists studying contemporary forms of adaptation,why might this be a challenge?
A) Truly isolated indigenous communities, anthropology's traditional and ongoing study focus, are becoming harder to find.
B) According to Marcus and Fischer (1986), "The cultures of world peoples need to be constantly rediscovered as these people reinvent them in changing historical circumstances."
C) A more dynamic world system, with greater and faster movements of people across space, speeds up the process of evolution, making the study of genetic adaptations more difficult.
D) Anthropological research tools do not work in this new modern world system, making their contributions less valuable.
E) Since cultures are tied to place, people moving around and connecting across space means the end of culture, and thus the end of anthropology.
Answer: B
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Chapter 2: Culture
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Q1) What does it mean to say that humans use culture instrumentally?
A) People use culture to fulfill their basic biological needs for food, drink, shelter, comfort, and reproduction.
B) People use culture to develop artistic endeavors, including musical instruments and visual arts.
C) People use culture to advance civilization.
D) Culture is a human construct.
E) Culture is instrumental in the creation of societies.
Answer: A
Q2) What process is most responsible for the existence of international culture?
A) ethnocentrism
B) cultural relativism
C) dendritic acculturation
D) gene flow
E) cultural diffusion, whether direct, indirect, or by force
Answer: E
Q3) Culture is transmitted in society.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 3: Applying Anthropology
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Q1) Strictly speaking,medical anthropology is an applied field within anthropology.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) One of the stated goals of public anthropology is to
A) oppose policies that promote injustice.
B) refrain from discussion of social issues in the media.
C) promote anthropology as a career, especially to minorities.
D) encourage academic anthropologists to become applied anthropologists.
E) restrict the publication of research papers to professional journals.
Answer: A
Q3) Less than half of Toronto's citizens were born outside of Canada.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q4) A commonly stated goal of recent development policy is to promote equity; that is,to reduce poverty and promote a more even distribution of wealth.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 4: Doing Archaeology and Biological Anthropology
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Q1) In an example of how microscopic evidence in studying the past can yield surprising results that may overturn long-held assumptions,Williamson's analysis of microscopic residues stuck to the edges of cutting tools found at a cave site in South Africa revealed that
A) 50 percent of the residues were from plants, contradicting the prevailing assumption that such tools were used mainly to hunt and butcher animals.
B) all of the residues were from butchered animals, but most of the butchering had been performed by women and not by men.
C) 30 percent of the residues were from plants, suggesting a slow transition from vegetarian to carnivorous diets.
D) 50 percent of the residues were from domesticated plants, pushing back the date of plant domestication from 10,000 to 40,000 years ago.
E) 30 percent of the residues were from human flesh, suggesting cannibalism.
Q2) Archaeological anthropologists excavate sites to gain a better understanding of the regional patterning of the molecular record.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 5: Evolution and Genetics
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Q1) How have modern-day creationists sometimes misunderstood the contrast between microevolution and macroevolution to comment on evolution?
A) by noting that no degree of phenotypical difference is implied by the term macroevolution
B) by suggesting that macroevolution, in contrast to microevolution, cannot be demonstrated based on the fossil record
C) by suggesting that speciation occurs after intense competition
D) by avoiding the sharp contrast between microevolution and macroevolution
E) by arguing that the fossil record supports macroevolution but not microevolution
Q2) "Evolution is just a theory!" How would you respond to someone who challenges you with such a statement?
Q3) Recessive traits are expressed only in homozygous individuals.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Directional selection works to reduce genetic variation by removing maladaptive traits from the gene pool.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 6: Human Variation and Adaptation
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Q1) Humanity (Homo sapiens)lacks distinct races because human populations have not been isolated enough from one another to develop into discrete groups.
A)True
B)False
Q2) In theory,a biological race is a geographically isolated subdivision of a species.Humanity (Homo sapiens)lacks such races because
A) although humans exhibit biological differences, these are only skin deep.
B) human populations have experienced a type of controlled breeding distinct from that of dogs and roses.
C) human populations have not been isolated enough from one another to develop such discrete groups.
D) they are politically incorrect.
E) humans are less genetically predictable than animals and plants susceptible to domestication.
Q3) Physical features cluster into discrete genetic units.
A)True B)False
Q4) Why do differences in skin pigmentation exist around the world?
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Chapter 7: The Primates
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Q1) All primates share a common arboreal heritage.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following statements about Proconsul is NOT true?
A) It was the most abundant and successful of the anthropoids during the early Miocene.
B) It is probably the last common ancestor shared by Old World monkeys and apes.
C) It was a carnivore.
D) It had marked sexual dimorphism.
E) It lacked the capacity for brachiation.
Q3) Which of the following is an example of an analogy?
A) the mammary glands of dogs and the mammary glands of cats
B) similarities in chromosomal DNA between apes and humans
C) pentadactyly (having five digits on the hands and feet) among baboons and macaques
D) dolphin fins and fish fins
E) bony eye sockets in chimps and similar structures in gorillas
Q4) What are the general trends in hominoid evolution during the Miocene? What derived hominoid traits appeared during this time?
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Chapter 8: Early Hominins
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Q1) All of the following are true about the recent discovery of the world's oldest child,dubbed "Lucy's baby," EXCEPT that
A) she is a member of Australopithecus afarensis, a species many anthropologists consider ancestral to humans.
B) the 3.3-million-year-old fossilized toddler was uncovered in northern Ethiopia.
C) her remains, which are amazingly complete, include a remarkably well-preserved skull, milk teeth, tiny fingers, a torso, a foot, and a kneecap.
D) the fossil suggests that the child died because her brain, which appears to have been larger than an average chimp brain at that age, was too large for her slowly developing skull.
E) the fossil supports the theory that Au. afarensis walked upright on two legs but still retained an apelike upper body, including two complete shoulder blades similar to a gorilla's, so it could have been better at climbing than are humans.
Q2) What factors were critical in the evolution of bipedalism? How do they illustrate the close relationship between biology and culture? How does the discovery of Lucy's "baby" contribute to the understanding of this relationship?
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Chapter 9: Archaic Homo
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Q1) The stone-tool tradition associated with Neandertals is called the Mousterian.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Drawing on biological and cultural evidence,discuss the major similarities and differences in the cultural adaptive strategies employed by Australopithecus and H.erectus.
Q3) What is the most likely explanation of why early Homo left Africa and spread into Eurasia?
A) a hyperspecialization in vegetarian diets
B) the pursuit of meat
C) Homo's smaller bodies, which made them more fit for long-distance travel
D) overpopulation in Africa
E) a maladaptation to a more energy-inefficient system of locomotion
Q4) Which of the following traits does NOT characterize a Neandertal skull?
A) a broad face
B) a large brow ridge
C) huge front teeth
D) huge molars
E) an average cranial capacity larger than that of modern humans
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Chapter 10: The Origin and Spread of Modern Humans
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Q1) 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.
Q2) Which of the following aided the expansion of human populations throughout North America?
A) the invention of the wheel
B) abundant big-game animals
C) the domestication of primitive horses
D) widespread slash-and-burn horticulture
E) raised-field cultivation
Q3) The dry land that connected Australia and Tasmania is known as Beringia.
A)True
B)False
Q4) How has molecular genetics affected our recent understanding of human evolution?
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Chapter 11: The First Farmers
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Q1) The foundations of the state-a social and political unit featuring a central government,extreme contrasts of wealth,and social classes-emerged
A) in the alluvial desert plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, where a new economy based on irrigation and trade fueled the growth of this entirely new form of society.
B) out of an attempt to copy, on a larger scale, the lifestyle that early sedentism offered its members prior to the sudden population growth caused by food production.
C) in the hilly flanks, because that was the area that could best sustain a growing population.
D) at the intersection of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, where the abundance of water helped keep a complex irrigation system working.
E) against the will of the people, who correctly foresaw the many ills this new form of society would bring upon them.
Q2) Anthropologists once thought,erroneously,that domestication would happen almost automatically once people gained sufficient knowledge of plants and animals.How has their view changed?
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Chapter 12: The First Cities and States
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Q1) Which of the following events played an important role in the abandonment of the fields in Mesopotamia?
A) external conquest
B) a landslide caused by heavy mountain rains
C) erosion
D) destruction of the fields by mineral salts
E) an earthquake
Q2) Coastal Peru illustrates the explanatory power of Carneiro's theory of state formation caused by the interaction of environmental circumscription,warfare,and population increase.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Jericho,the earliest known town,is located in central Turkey.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Early states had productive farming economies.
A)True
B)False
Q5) 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) Which is the key assumption in Claude Lévi-Strauss's structuralism?
A) All myths can be classified as either good or evil.
B) The human propensity to classify phenomena in certain ways is acquired through enculturation.
C) There is a very specific role for human agency in culture, and the structure of cultural patterns determines that role.
D) Cultural patterns determine the human propensity to classify things in certain ways.
E) Human minds have certain universal characteristics that originate in common features of the Homo sapiens brain and lead people everywhere to think similarly regardless of their society or cultural background.
Q2) Because there are so many anthropologists in the United States,the distinction between emic and etic does not apply to American culture.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What do you think is the relation between theory and methods in anthropology,if they relate at all?
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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Q1) What is the study of the sounds used in speech?
A) phones
B) phonemes
C) phonology
D) phonetics
E) phonemics
Q2) Problems arise with contemporary means of communication,such as texting and online messaging,because much of what we communicate is a nonverbal reflection of emotional states.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Focal vocabularies are found only in non-Western societies like the Eskimo and the Nuer.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Linguistic productivity refers to the fixed linguistic structures that prevent the creation of new expressions.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 15: Ethnicity and Race
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Q1) What term refers to the destruction of the culture of an ethnic group?
A) genocide
B) prejudice
C) ethnocide
D) discrimination
E) diaspora
Q2) Multiculturalism emphasizes the need for a series of cultures to abandon their old ethnic identities and join together to forge a new and unique cultural identity.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Colonialism often erected boundaries that corresponded poorly with preexisting cultural divisions.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Is it contradictory to say that membership in an ethnic group is an ascribed status while arguing that we negotiate our social identities? Why or why not?
Q5) Why aren't most nation-states homogeneous? How do countries vary in their ethnic compositions in different regions of the world?
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Chapter 16: Making a Living
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Q1) With generalized reciprocity,the individuals participating in the exchange usually do not know the other person prior to the exchange.
A)True
B)False
Q2) In transhumant societies,the entire group moves with their animals throughout the year.
A)True B)False
Q3) Agriculturalists tend to live in permanent villages that are larger and closer to other settlements than the semipermanent settlements of horticulturalists.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Which of the following kinds of exchange is characteristic among the members of a family?
A) generalized reciprocity
B) balanced reciprocity
C) negative reciprocity
D) redistribution
E) None of these answers is correct.
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Chapter 17: Political Systems
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Q1) 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
Q2) In an ethnographic field study of political systems in northern Mozambique,Nicholas Kottak found that avoiding shame can be an effective control against breaking social norms.This example of how shame can be a powerful social sanction
A) is unique among ethnographic cases illustrating the variety of sociopolitical systems that exist in the world today.
B) is often a key component of the formal processes of social control.
C) is evidence that shame is a cultural universal.
D) is an indication that women tend to suffer from the consequences of shame more than men do.
E) joins the work of many other anthropologists that cite the importance of informal processes of social control, including gossip and stigma.
Q3) How does one distinguish between a chiefdom and a state? Is this a useful distinction? Is it always easy to make such a distinction?
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Chapter 18: Gender
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Q1) What is meant by the term feminization of poverty?
A) the view that conditions of poverty are emasculating
B) the increasing number of women among the poorest people
C) the popularity of feminist ideals among poor people
D) the recent campaign by feminists to work with the poor
E) the view that only women care about issues of poverty
Q2) In the United States,attitudes regarding the role of women in the workplace have varied according to economic needs.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Intersex,a group of conditions involving discrepancy between external genitals and internal genitals,can have a variety of chromosomal causes that create a sex-gender difference.Which of the following chromosomal anomalies identifies a person with the chromosomes of a woman and female internal anatomy,but with male external genitals?
A) XY Intersex person
B) True Gonadal Intersex person
C) Klinefelter's syndrome (XXY configuration)
D) XX Intersex person
E) Turner syndrome
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Chapter 19: Families, Kinship, and Descent
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Q1) What does ego represent in a depiction of a kinship system?
A) the sense of distinct individuality that is present in any society
B) the emotional attachment felt by the people who use the system
C) the point of reference used to determine which kin terms go where
D) the boundary between one's kin group and outsiders
E) a gender-free way of reckoning kinship
Q2) In a bifurcate merging kinship system,which of the following would be referred to by the same term?
A) F and MB
B) M and MZ
C) MB and FB
D) FZ and MZ
E) JR and BJ
Q3) In unilineal descent,one's ancestry is traced through only one line of descent.
A)True
B)False
Q4) A bifurcate merging kinship terminology distinguishes between collateral and lineal relatives.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 20: Marriage
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Q1) A lobola,a substantial marital gift from the husband and his kin to the wife and her kin among the BaThonga of Mozambique,is
A) a form of bride theft.
B) only given for elopements.
C) the same as a dowry.
D) widespread in patrilineal societies.
E) widespread in matrilineal societies.
Q2) Serial polygamy is the practice of having more than one wife,but never more than one at the same time.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Using what you know about cross-cultural comparisons of marital practices,discuss the following statement: Serial monogamy is the result of a cultural emphasis on individualism,whereas polygamy is the result of a cultural emphasis on social responsibility.
Q4) "A person can have multiple spouses without ever getting divorced." Using the concepts you have learned in this chapter,explain this seemingly contradictory statement.
Q5) Does the practice of paying a dowry necessarily imply gender inequality?
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Chapter 21: Religion
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Q1) Bronislaw Malinowski found that the Trobriand Islanders used magic when sailing,a hazardous activity.He proposed that
A) people turn to magic to instill psychological stress on their competitors, especially when the fish supply is very low.
B) magic actually reduced the fishing success of the Trobriand Islanders, but at least they did not feel directly responsible, since then they could blame it on bad luck.
C) magic was a surprisingly effective stand-in for proper fishing skills and experience, because it made people confident in their capabilities.
D) because people can't control matters such as wind, weather, and the fish supply, they turn to magic.
E) magic emboldened people to take more risks.
Q2) How do you explain the universality of religion?
Q3) What are the similarities and differences between religions of foraging societies and those of nation-states? How do these compare with Olympian religions and monotheism? What kinds of general evolutionary trends are discernible in religious worship?
Q4) Discuss two cases illustrating religion's role in social change.
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Chapter 22: Arts, Media, and Sports
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Q1) Appreciation for the arts must be learned,this being part of the process of A) aesthetic tuning.
B) biological adaptation.
C) imitation.
D) cultural evolution.
E) enculturation.
Q2) Some researchers have proposed that early humans with a biological penchant for music may have been able to live more effectively in social groups,thus conferring an adaptive advantage to this penchant.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Cultural values,social forces,and the media influence international sports success.
A)True
B)False
Q4) In the United States,there is a sharp distinction between what is considered art and what is not.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Where is art found? Is art found in the same contexts in all kinds of societies?
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Chapter 23: The World System and Colonialism
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Q1) According to Wallerstein (1982,2004),what are the three structural positions of the modern world system?
A) core, periphery, and semiperiphery
B) metropole, satellite, and semisatellite
C) state, nation-state, and nation
D) wealth, power, and prestige
E) preliterate, nonliterate, and literate
Q2) The seeds of industrial society were planted well before the 18<sup>th</sup> century.For example,a knitting machine invented in England in 1589 was so far ahead of its time that it played a profitable role in factories two and three centuries later.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The United States originally started out as a peripheral nation,but by 1900 it had asserted itself as a member of the industrialized core.
A)True
B)False
Q4) 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) 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
Q3) Identities are
A) fixed by both genotype and phenotype.
B) never dependent on context.
C) not fixed; they are fluid and multiple.
D) fictions.
E) creative constructs and therefore of little real consequence.
Q4) Ethnoecology is any society's set of environmental practices and perceptions-that is,its cultural model of the environment and its relation to people and society.
A)True
B)False
Q5) How have recent movements regarding the politics of identity with regard to indigenous peoples varied around the world?
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