Social and Cultural Change Exam Practice Tests
Course Introduction
This course explores the processes and dynamics of social and cultural change in various societies, analyzing how and why transformations occur over time. Students will examine theoretical frameworks that explain cultural adaptation, social movements, institutional development, globalization, and technological advancements. The course discusses both historical and contemporary examples to illustrate the interplay between tradition and innovation, as well as the impacts of change on identities, values, power structures, and everyday life. Through comparative studies, case analyses, and critical discussions, students will gain a deeper understanding of the factors driving change and the implications for individuals and communities in a rapidly evolving world.
Recommended Textbook
Cultural Anthropology A Global Perspective 8th Edition by Raymond Scupin
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18 Chapters
1138 Verified Questions
1138 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: Introduction to Anthropology
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61 Verified Questions
61 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Inductive reasoning takes general statements and develops specific facts.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) Primatology, the study of non-human primates, is a specialization within physical anthropology that explores human evolution.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) 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
Q4) An ethnography is a written description of a society.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 2: Human Evolution
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75 Verified Questions
75 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Cro-Magnon people were the first humans to domesticate cattle and sheep.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) The most important technological development in stone tool production for the Upper Paleolithic period was the ability to make:
A) sharpened cores
B) long, narrow blades
C) scraping tools
D) hand axes
Answer: B
Q3) Evidence for the lifestyle of Cro-Magnon people comes from:
A) France
B) Iraq
C) East Africa
D) China
Answer: A
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Page 4
Chapter 3: Culture
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69 Verified Questions
69 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Minority groups are often forced to accept the ideologies of the economically and politically dominant groups through the process of cultural hegemony.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) The term "ideology" refers to:
A) signs and symbols used to communicate particular ideas
B) beliefs and values supporting the interests of a group
C) specific expressions of material culture
D) a faulty or misguided worldview
Answer: B
Q3) Cultural diversity is a reflection of environmental adaptations and the consequence of symbolic creations.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Page 5
Chapter 4: The Process of Enculturation: Psychological and Cognitive Anthropology
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76 Verified Questions
76 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Most anthropologists agree that humans do not have closed instincts.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The hijras of India are anatomically male at the time of their birth. However, after having their genitals surgically removed, they dress like females and engage in certain male-only activities like smoking water pipes. In Indian society, they are considered to be:
A) social deviants
B) men
C) women
D) a third gender
Q3) Human behavior can be entirely attributed to cultural factors.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Franz Boas had a guiding influence on Margaret Mead.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Humans cannot ignore or override their basic, inborn drives. A)True
B)False
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Chapter 5: Language
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56 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Semantics is the study of the meaning of symbols, words, phrases, and sentences in a language.
A)True
B)False
Q2) A German shepherd dog will not have any difficulty understanding the bark of a French poodle, while a speaker of English will have trouble understanding a Chinese speaker. Explain why this is so.
Q3) A system of symbols with standard meanings is a __________.
A) society
B) phonology
C) syntax
D) language
E) semantic
Q4) According to Herbert Terrace's research, chimpanzees are highly intelligent animals that can learn many signs, but they cannot understand syntax.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Could Neandertals speak in the same way as anatomically modern human beings?
Q6) Would it be possible to have a culture without a language?
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Anthropological Explanations
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57 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Nineteenth century theories of "unilineal evolution" proposed that:
A) modern humans were descended from ape-like creatures
B) human existence is characterized by continuous progress towards civilization
C) Egypt was the source of all civilizations
D) the Bible was the best reference on the human past
Q2) Malinowski's psychological functionalism focused on how society functions to serve the interests or needs of the individual.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Discuss the principal differences between nineteenth-century models for unilineal evolution and twentieth-century neoevolutionary theories. Who were the principal proponents of each?
Q4) Define historical particularism. Do you think that this approach can be compatible with investigations of cultural evolution? Why or why not?
Q5) The methodology Morgan used to investigate foreign cultures included:
A) the distribution of questionnaires by travelers and missionaries
B) participant observation of societies on South Pacific islands
C) training students as ethnographers
D) excavating ancient archaeological sites
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Chapter 7: Analyzing Sociocultural Systems
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Sample Questions
Q1) Studies of hunter-gatherer groups often include an investigation of the maximum population that a specific environment can support, or what is called the , in order to understand population change and distribution.
A) fecundity
B) life expectancy
C) carrying capacity
D) niche load
E) population burden
Q2) An important component of social structure is status, or the recognized position that a person occupies within society. Societies recognize two kinds of status, one attached to a person from birth called status and the other based on a person's specific actions called status.
A) ascribed / achieved
B) natal / gained
C) birth / adult
D) born / won
E) family / career
Q3) What are the benefits and limitations of conducting cross-cultural research?
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Chapter 8: Band Societies
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Sample Questions
Q1) Bride service 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
Q2) Matrilocal residence:
A) occurs when motherless children live together in order to survive
B) requires a man to reside with his wife's parents
C) is the most common form of living arrangement found among foragers
D) requires sisters to live in the same household
Q3) Sadly, foragers do not have any music or art since their days are mainly taken up in subsistence activities, politics, and religion.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Australian aborigines relied heavily on the bow and arrow for hunting.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Are gender roles strongly related to the division of labor in forager societies, or does flexibility exist?
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Chapter 9: Tribes
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the relationship between bridewealth and divorce? Is marriage stable because of high bridewealth costs, or can a society afford to have high bridewealth only if it has a stable form of marriage? How are descent rules (matrilineal versus patrilineal) associated with marital stability?
Q2) While studying the Yanomamö, Napoleon Chagnon found that soil depletion was not the only reason these peoples moved their garden plots. His research found that:
A) Major population movements of the Yanomamö were due to warfare and conflict with neighbors.
B) The Yanomamö simply got tired of living in the same area and just packed up and left on a whim.
C) The Yanomamö had developed a 25-year plan that detailed their moves from year to year.
D) After about two to three years, poisonous snakes and alligators started to congregate in the garden plots because the vegetables attracted animals that snakes and alligators liked to eat.
E) These cleared plots eventually became shallow ponds that could not be used as gardens.
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Page 11
Chapter 10: Chiefdoms
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Sample Questions
Q1) The political structures of chiefdoms differ from those of tribes because in a chiefdom:
A) Leadership is vested in an institutionalized office that exists independently of a particular person.
B) The central leadership position is inherited, or passed down within a single ruling family.
C) Tribal leaders maintain absolute authority, usually enforced by physical intimidation.
D) Political power derives mostly from personal qualities, such as intelligence or skill.
Q2) A potlatch is an exchange ceremony when the Trobrianders give their chief lots of presents to show their appreciation of his leadership skills.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What role did kinship and descent play in the social structure of a chiefdom?
Q4) Aside from the prestige factors associated with the potlatch among the Northwest Coast Indians, what other functions did these ceremonies have, and what were the implications?
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Page 12
Chapter 11: Agricultural States
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63 Verified Questions
63 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to Morton Fried, codified laws reinforce a system of inequity by keeping peasants subordinate while allowing those in power to have access to scarce resources. Service provides a different perspective. What is Service's perspective?
Q2) Despite the domination of the peasantry by the state or landlords, the peasantry often adapted at the level of the village or community by cooperating in the production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of goods, thus assuring that individual families did not become destitute.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Discuss the relationships among gender, subsistence, and status in agricultural states. How does the picture that emerges differ from the one for any of the following groups: (1) foragers, (2) tribes, or (3) chiefdoms?
Q4) Why is monogamy the primary form of marriage in agricultural states? Is polygyny allowed or practiced in any agricultural states? Are there any restrictions on who can enter into a polygynous union?
Q5) Except among the elite, polygyny was rare in agricultural states.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 12: Industrial States
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Sample Questions
Q1) A primary feature that separates an industrial society from a preindustrial society is:
A) All kinship networks, such as kindreds, extended families, lineages, and clans, have been replaced with corporations, businesses, and schools.
B) Most productive labor in industrial societies involves factory and office work rather than agricultural or foraging activities.
C) Social stratification decreases, causing a more egalitarian society to develop within industrial states.
D) A reduction in warfare, conflict, and feuding occurs in industrial states based on territory.
Q2) How does industrialization affect the family, kinship, marriage, and divorce?
Q3) is an economic system in which the state (ideally representative of the people) owns the basic means of production.
A) Capitalism
B) Idealism
C) Socialism
D) Futurism
Q4) What are some of the unique characteristics of Japanese industrial corporations?
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Chapter 13: Globalization, Culture, and Indigenous Societies
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Sample Questions
Q1) Dependency theory identifies multinational corporations based in industrialized capitalist societies as:
A) advocates of increased economic and military aid
B) designers of global education programs stressing free market entrepreneurship
C) purveyors of a new imperialism, called neoimperialism
D) promoters of centralization of economic and political decision making
Q2) What governmental policies contributed to the decline of Native American populations in the U.S.?
Q3) The term "Second World" is used to refer to:
A) modern, industrialized nation-states
B) what used to be called the Soviet Union and other communist countries
C) undeveloped, nonindustrialized countries
D) traditional, pre-state societies affected by contact with the modern world
Q4) In one of the rituals of the Native American Church, participants use as a form of communal sacrament to partake of the Holy Spirit.
A) specially prepared maize bread
B) modern fast-food items from McDonald's
C) the bones of their ancestors
D) hallucinogenic cactus buds
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Chapter 14: Globalization in Latin America, africa, and the Caribbean
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63 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Apartheid is a system in which social and political rights are based on an individual's physical characteristics.
A)True
B)False
Q2) By the mid-1990s, Mexico was producing more petroleum than any other nation on earth.
A)True
B)False
Q3) In open peasant communities, crops are raised primarily for:
A) local subsistence
B) outside markets
C) barter with other peasant communities
D) feeding livestock
Q4) The typical Yoruba household consists of a man, his wife, and their unmarried children.
A)True B)False
Q5) Slavery was practiced in African chiefdoms before the arrival of Europeans. A)True
B)False
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Chapter 15: Globalization in the Middle East and Asia
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Sample Questions
Q1) The more materialist interpretation of the caste system attributes its origin to:
A) heredity
B) widespread social consensus
C) religious mythology
D) economic and political conditions
Q2) Traditionally, a Muslim woman has the same rights to divorce as a man.
A)True
B)False
Q3) In the 1970s, Norman Chance was the first American ethnologist to be allowed to conduct fieldwork in China after a long period during which such work was prohibited. Discuss his observations of Half Moon Village and comment on what his research revealed about state-run programs.
Q4) Cultural anthropologists link the caste system to Hindu doctrines of karma and reincarnation.
A)True B)False
Q5) Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the Vietnamese opposition to French rule. A)True B)False
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Chapter 16: Race and Ethnicity
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Sample Questions
Q1) Ethnic boundary markers include religion, dress, and language.
A)True
B)False
Q2) In a controversial book entitled The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, the authors purportedly found a connection between genetic differences in the form of IQ scores and racial categories. Could differences in IQ scores among Euro Americans, Asian Americans, and African Americans be explained logically in other, more culturally-defined ways?
Q3) African Americans had the largest demographic increase compared to other ethnic groups, according to the 2000 census.
A)True
B)False
Q4) During the period 1901-1920, most legal immigrants into the United States were from:
A) Latin America
B) Southern and Eastern Europe
C) Northern and Western Europe
D) Asia
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Chapter 17: Contemporary Global Trends
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Sample Questions
Q1) Demographic-transition theory assumes a close connection between:
A) fertility/mortality rates and socioeconomic development
B) birth control methods and infant mortality
C) sustainable development and foreign investment by multinational corporations
D) advanced, industrial societies and poor, preindustrial societies
Q2) The collapse of the former Soviet Union was characterized by:
A) declaration of independence by non-Russian republics
B) "federalism" and increased solidarity of the states that had been joined to create the Union
C) the spread of Communism throughout Eastern Europe
D) the disappearance of perestroika and glasnost
Q3) Why is there concern over the loss of biodiversity?
Q4) The populations of Germany and Japan are both:
A) doubling every 23 years
B) increasing at a rate of 2% a year
C) stable and unchanging
D) decreasing
Q5) British biologist Matt Ridley argues that technology will solve most of our environmental problems over time. What are some of the things happening now on the technological front that give hope for that proposition?
Page 19
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Chapter 18: Applied Anthropology
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Sample Questions
Q1) While studying the use of crack cocaine in Spanish Harlem, anthropologist Philippe Bourgois found that:
A) Crack dealers viewed their clients as "lost souls" ripe for exploitation and manipulation.
B) Crack dealing was viewed as the most realistic route to upward mobility and the achievement of the American Dream.
C) Crack users could be effectively treated by administering high doses of heroin combined with methadone.
D) Children under the age of five were often used to manufacture and distribute crack when police activities increased in an area.
Q2) In order to tolerate practices such as racism, child abuse, spouse abuse, homicide, torture, human sacrifice, and the mass murder (genocide) of Jews, Gypsies, and homosexuals by the Nazis, one would have to abide strictly by the principle of:
A) lost causes
B) misplaced perceptions
C) ethical relativism
D) moral turpitude
E) immoral tolerance
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