Social and Cultural Change
Midterm Exam
Course Introduction
This course explores the dynamic processes of social and cultural change, examining how societies and cultures evolve over time due to factors such as technological innovation, globalization, migration, social movements, and policy interventions. Students will analyze key theories and concepts to understand the drivers of change, assess the impacts on individuals and communities, and consider the responses and adaptations within different societies. Case studies from diverse global contexts illustrate both the challenges and opportunities that accompany change, fostering a critical appreciation of cultural continuity, resistance, and transformation in contemporary society.
Recommended Textbook
Cultural Anthropology 14th Edition by
Carol R. Ember
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18 Chapters
990 Verified Questions
990 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: What Is Anthropology
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Q1) Which of the following areas of study is a part of anthropology?
A) why contemporary peoples have different cultures
B) how race is linked to behavior and intelligence
C) how insect colonies are organized
D) when and how dinosaurs became extinct
Answer: A
Q2) Anthropology helps us realize that people are physically and culturally adapted to their particular __________.
A) environment
B) lifestyle
C) religion
D) language
Answer: A
Q3) Prosimians, monkeys, apes, and humans are all members of the order __________.
A) Primates
B) humans
C) Homo sapiens
D) mammals
Answer: A
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Chapter 2: Culture and Culture Change
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Q1) The process of cultural change known as __________ describes a situation in which a subordinate society adopts cultural traits or technologies through contact with a more powerful society, either through force or due to perceived economic or social advantages.
A) acculturation
B) stimulus diffusion
C) unconscious invention
D) enculturation
Answer: A
Q2) Which important tenet of anthropology was first championed by Franz Boas to challenge the attitude that Western culture was inherently superior to others?
A) cultural relativism
B) participant-observation
C) ethnocentrism
D) evolutionism
Answer: A
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4
Chapter 3: Culture and the Individual
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Q1) The idea that an understanding of personality might help us explain connections between primary and secondary institutions is called __________.
A) personality integration of culture
B) personality and social integration
C) personal-cultural synchrony
D) personal-social connection
Answer: A
Q2) How do parents differ in their wishes for what qualities they would like their children to possess?
A) Parents in more urban societies hope their children will have independence and self-reliance.
B) Parents in more rural societies hope their children will focus on the family and community.
C) Parents in more urban societies hope their children will focus on the family and community.
D) Parents in more rural societies hope their children will have independence and self-reliance.
Answer: A
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Chapter 4: Understanding and Explaining Culture
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Q1) Participant-observation refers to the __________.
A) practice of immersing oneself in the language and customs of a society
B) use of a laboratory to standardize measurements
C) observation of how people interact in carefully contrived situations
D) employment of natives to gather information from their peers
Q2) Anthropologists have realized that __________ on their experiences and personal interactions is an important part of understanding.
A) reflecting
B) documenting
C) reporting
D) theorizing
Q3) Today, evolutionary anthropologists or behavioral ecologists look at how a behavioral characteristic may be __________.
A) adaptive for an individual in a given environment
B) adaptive for a group in a given environment
C) maladaptive for an individual in any environment
D) maladaptive for a group in any environment
Q4) Discuss the pros and cons of anthropologists using pseudonyms and fake community names in their publications.
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Chapter 5: Communication and Language
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Q1) In addition to geographical separation, how do different dialects become completely different languages?
A) social restrictions preventing regular communication between the two groups
B) intentional distinction by the speakers of the two groups
C) educational differences between speakers of the two dialects
D) religious beliefs restricting the use of one of the dialects
Q2) Compared to people in simpler societies, people in complex societies
A) commonly have a larger overall vocabulary due to a greater number of technical specialties
B) commonly have fewer terms for basic colors
C) commonly have the same number of general terms for plants, but more terms for specific plants
D) usually have more names for specific animals, but the same number of general animal terms
Q3) What do linguists mean when they refer to grammar?
A) unconscious principles that predict how most people talk
B) prescriptive rules that people are supposed to follow when speaking
C) geographical variation within a single language
D) traits in a person's speech that serve as clues to their education and status
Q4) Compare and contrast human and nonhuman communication.
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Chapter 6: Getting Food
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Q1) From where do most traditional pastoralists get their animal protein?
A) the milk and blood of the animals they raise
B) trading wool for cheese and yogurt in cities
C) the meat of the animals they raise
D) buying meat with cash earned through wage labor
Q2) In which of these environments would you be least likely to find a pastoralist society?
A) mountains
B) savannas
C) prairies
D) steppes
Q3) What social characteristics are associated with foragers and complex foragers?
Q4) What insights can we gain about humanity's past by studying the lives of contemporary foragers? What are the limitations associated with using modern foragers to help understand ancient humans?
Q5) Imagine a global crisis that wiped out mechanized agriculture across the world. If your society were forced to return to a more localized subsistence strategy, what would be most appropriate for your environment? Explain your answer.
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Chapter 7: Economic Systems
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Q1) What factor, in addition to calorie yield, is likely to contribute to a forager's choice of what foods to collect?
A) predictability
B) fat content
C) ease of processing
D) rarity
Q2) On what does the form of reciprocity used between people usually depend?
A) kinship distance
B) social status
C) wealth of the individual
D) gender roles
Q3) What do anthropologists mean when they refer to peasant economies?
A) communities that are somewhat more commercialized than traditional subsistence economies
B) people who are actively trying to break into the market economy
C) groups that have a money-based, market economy but do not hold much wealth
D) societies that maintain their traditional subsistence economy
Q4) Critically discuss the costs and benefits of having a market exchange economy. What advancements can be gained from this economic system? What social institutions are lost?
Page 9
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Chapter 8: Social Stratification: Class, Ethnicity, and Racism
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Q1) How do social scientists generally measure the degree of class mobility?
A) by comparing the class of individuals with the class of their parents
B) by ranking the various classes living within a single neighborhood
C) by determining the class of friends of the average middle-class child
D) by measuring the number of classes that most people believe exist in their society
Q2) Which of the following statements best describes slavery?
A) It has existed in various forms in many times and places.
B) It is extremely rare in the anthropological record.
C) It has been found most often in horticultural societies.
D) It is most common in societies with intensive agriculture.
Q3) What is happening to the gap between rich and poor nations?
A) It has been rising steadily since the Industrial Revolution.
B) The gap is still growing, but at a slower rate.
C) The wealth difference has stabilized.
D) The gap between rich and poor is shrinking.
Q4) What is the difference between race and ethnicity? How are each of these classifications related to social inequality?
Q5) Does industrialization increase or decrease social inequality? Support your answer.
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Chapter 9: Sex and Gender
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Q1) Why do men dominate the political sphere of life across all societies?
A) Decision-making about war is the most important kind of politics, and men have the most experience with warfare.
B) Achieving a political position in most societies requires ambition, aggression, and strength-traits that are more pronounced in men than in women.
C) Because of the hormonal changes associated with pregnancy and lactation, women are too emotional to make level-headed political decisions.
D) Political life is closely associated with spirituality, and most cultures believe women to be too unclean for such high callings.
Q2) What type of subtle socialization might account for the observation that girls often show more responsible and nurturant behavior than boys?
A) Girls are almost always asked to do more work than boys.
B) Boys are encouraged to be irresponsible and wasteful with their toys.
C) Girls are told from an early age that they must be responsible.
D) Boys are given more difficult chores than girls.
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11
Chapter 10: Marriage and the Family
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Q1) Why does sexual competition appear to be higher among humans than other primates?
A) Unlike most other primates, human females are sexually receptive throughout the year.
B) Humans are more likely than other primates to live in multi-male, multi-female social groups.
C) Humans are particularly aggressive primates and more likely to compete through physical means.
D) There is a lower female to male ratio in human communities than in most other primate groups.
Q2) Couples raised together as children following the Chinese tradition of "daughter-in-law raised from childhood" are __________.
A) more likely to get divorced
B) more likely to have many children
C) less likely to seek extramarital sexual relationships
D) less likely to exchange dowry or bride price
Q3) Write a definition of marriage that would embrace all known forms of marriage recognized by anthropologists. In other words, what factors do these diverse unions have in common?
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Page 12
Chapter 11: Marital Residence and Kinship
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Q1) Matrilineal descent affiliates individuals with __________.
A) kin of both sexes related to them through women
B) only male kin related to them through both men and women
C) only female kin related to them through both men and women
D) kin of both sexes related to them through men
Q2) Why is the Tallensi religion considered by anthropologists to be a religion of one's specific descent group?
A) They believe that one's ancestors are the only force that can plague or protect them.
B) Their creator god is significantly different from those of neighboring cultures.
C) They are the only known culture to believe in their particular religious system.
D) They revere the living elders of their community rather than any sort of supernatural entity.
Q3) In societies with unilineal descent, __________.
A) some very close biological relatives are excluded from one's kin group
B) all individuals who reside together are considered kin
C) the kin group rarely acts as a unit
D) no biological relatives are excluded from the kin group
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Page 13
Chapter 12: Associations and Interest Groups
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Q1) In relatively non-stratified societies, associations tend to be based on __________.
A) age or sex
B) voluntary interest groups
C) ethnic group
D) achieved qualities
Q2) Which type of association has most often been involved with independence movements throughout the world?
A) multiethnic
B) rotating credit
C) military
D) age-set
Q3) What is the primary exception to the rule that, in American society, membership in an association is voluntary?
A) military draft
B) college recruitment
C) sorority rush
D) job interviews
Q4) Distinguish between age-set and age-grade associations, providing an example for each.
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Chapter 13: Political Life: Social Order and Disorder
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Q1) Degree of political participation seems to be __________.
A) high in small-scale societies and in modern nation-states, but low in between
B) higher in state-level societies than in small-scale societies
C) higher in small-scale societies than in state-level societies
D) low in small-scale societies and in modern nation-states, but high in between
Q2) A number of researchers predict that the world will eventually __________.
A) come to be politically integrated
B) find a peaceful solution for territorial disputes
C) return to small, ethnically distinct units
D) settle into two or three primary superpowers
Q3) Which type of society is particularly likely to make use of avoidance as a conflict resolution technique?
A) foragers
B) city dwellers
C) ranked societies
D) nomadic pastoralists
Q4) What is the consequence of the spread of state societies for the number of politically autonomous cultures found around the world?
Q5) Compare and contrast the political life of bands and tribal organizations.
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Chapter 14: Religion and Magic
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Q1) Shamans are usually __________ and __________.
A) part-time; male
B) part-time; female
C) full-time; female
D) full-time; male
Q2) What social forces drive a revitalization movement? Give an example of a revitalization movement and explain the social background surrounding the movement.
Q3) What is the difference between taboo and mana?
A) Things containing taboo cannot be touched.
B) Things containing taboo can be touched.
C) Taboo is an evil, hideous force quite able to destroy all people who touch it.
D) Taboo is a premeditated form of evil.
Q4) Cargo cults generally occurred in Melanesian societies that had __________.
A) felt deprived of Western goods after decreasing contact
B) recently come into contact with Western powers
C) traditionally been at war with each other
D) never seen Western goods
Q5) Outline the ways in which people interact with the supernatural.
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Chapter 15: The Arts
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Q1) Which of the following features would you be most likely to find in the art of egalitarian societies?
A) unused space
B) unlike elements
C) asymmetrical design
D) framed figures
Q2) Nomadic foragers tend to have what type of art?
A) song, dance, and small portable art
B) written literature and performed plays
C) painting and sculpture
D) rock art that can be visited each year
Q3) Preserving ancient rock art is an example of what type of anthropological work?
A) applied anthropology
B) ethnology
C) biological anthropology
D) ethnohistory
Q4) What evidence is there for ethnocentric attitudes in our viewing of the art of other cultures? What can we learn from this about our definition of art?
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Chapter 16: Practicing and Applying Anthropology
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Q1) What did the Field Museum bring to Chicago school students with its Maori meeting house display?
A) a space to discuss difficult issues in a context of mutual respect
B) a performance space to present issues of importance to the students
C) an area to learn about Pacific health care practices
D) a place to express themselves through traditional Maori artistic means
Q2) According to the code of ethics adopted by the Society for Applied Anthropology in 1948, __________.
A) the target community should be included as much as possible in the formulation of policy
B) anthropologists should not do research on applied questions unless specifically asked to do so by the people affected
C) the first responsibility of the anthropologist in the field is to his sponsors, second to himself or herself, and third to the people being studied
D) there is no need to include the target community in planning a study
Q3) How has the role of anthropologists as collaborators or advocates changed over the years? Give specific examples.
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Chapter 17: Health and Illness
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Q1) In the Hokkien medical system of Taiwan, what is a suitable treatment for blood loss?
A) "hot" remedies, such as baths and soups
B) "cold" remedies, such as iced drinks
C) ensuring a balance between phlegm and bile
D) ensuring a balance between yin and yang
Q2) Consistent with the biomedical paradigm, physicians tend to treat patients
A) as having conditions, rather than as complete people
B) with a consideration of the mind-body balance
C) for humoral and dietary imbalance
D) for underlying causes rather than for obvious symptoms
Q3) Which illness is thought of as a "folk illness"?
A) susto
B) depression
C) anorexia nervosa
D) pibloktoq
Q4) Distinguish between medicine's biomedical paradigm and medical anthropology's emphasis on a biocultural synthesis.
Q5) Compare and contrast the methods used by physicians and shamans.
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Chapter 18: Global Problems
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Q1) Which social problem would you expect to be more likely in societies with individual property rights, rather than shared rights?
A) famine
B) drought
C) malnutrition
D) homelessness
Q2) In their study of the homeless in New York City, Ellen Baxter and Kim Hopper found that __________.
A) poverty and disability lead to a series of crises, ending in homelessness
B) one event is sufficient to render a person homeless
C) homelessness is a choice, and there are many opportunities for adequate shelter
D) once people become homeless, they tend to stay that way for the rest of their lives
Q3) What has been responsible for more deaths than all the wars of the 20th century?
A) state terrorism by totalitarian governments
B) human trafficking and slavery
C) AIDS and malaria
D) famine in Africa during the 1970s and 1980s
Q4) What social factors are associated with famines?
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